After his side sealed a deserved 24-13 triumph over Argentina in Buenos Aires on Saturday, Springbok head coach Jacques Nienaber’s next task is to name his squad for the Rugby World Cup.
Nienaber is set to announce the names of the 33 players who will represent South Africa at the global showpiece in France and he admitted that he and the rest of the Bok selectors had difficult decisions to make.
Preparing for a tough selection meeting
“We have a tough team selection meeting coming up,” said Nienaber after the win over Los Pumas. “The players certainly put up their hands today.
“We gave 38 players a run in the last few weeks, and with the team set to play knock-out rugby from our opening game of the World Cup, it has set us in good stead.”
The Boks had to dig deep to secure their victory at Velez Sarsfield Stadium and after trailing their hosts 10-3 at half-time, they took control of proceedings and were rewarded with well-taken tries from Makazole Mapimpi and Canan Moodie.
The result was particularly encouraging given that Nienaber had rung the changes to his starting line-up that notched a narrow 22-21 win over Los Pumas in their last Rugby Championship Test in Johannesburg a week ago.
“This is an exceptional place to get a win,” said Nienaber.
“Argentina have been progressing well. They beat Australia and, last year, they defeated New Zealand, so we worked really hard to get our game in order and grind out the win, and we are pleased with the result.”
Springbok captain and hooker Bongi Mbonambi hailed his players’ fighting spirit and the way they came to the fore with an eye on the announcement of the Rugby World Cup squad on Tuesday.
“The one thing the coaches made sure of was to give as many players as possible a chance to play,” he said.
“The guys showed today they are ready to build to the Rugby World Cup. There’s no doubt the players have made it tough for the coaches (in terms of squad selection).
‘Kept pressing and believing’
“We tried a lot of things in the first half and the outcomes didn’t go our way, but we knew if we kept pressing and believing, it would come in the second half. And that certainly paid off.
“We spoke about backing one another all week, and the players certainly did that.”
READ MORE: Springboks overcome poor first-half performance to defeat Argentina
Article courtesy of
Source link
