Despite absence of key men, Boks stronger than in 2019 — Nienaber

Despite suffering a trio of senior player injuries before naming their World Cup squad last week, the Springboks believe they are in a better place than they were in 2019 in terms of squad depth as they prepare for the showpiece event kicking off in France next month.

World Cup winners Handre Pollard, Lukhanyo Am and Lood de Jager were all ruled out of the 2023 tournament in France, unless injuries allow them to sneak back in.

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But despite what would normally be a hammer blow for the chances of most international teams, Bok coach Jacques Nienaber believes they are in a strong position due to the depth created since the 2019 event.

‘More depth’

“I definitely think we have more depth than we had in 2019. We (Nienaber and Rassie Erasmus and their coaching team) only started in 2018, so you try to build as much depth as you can, as you want to give players exposure to the environment,” explained Nienaber.

“We didn’t have the luxury (then) that we have had over these last couple of years where we could rotate the squad, which we have done frequently.

“We made 11 changes to this team to face Wales (from the last match against Argentina). Going forward, I don’t think you will see 11 or 12 changes again.

“There will be changes, but maybe just four or five. It won’t be like the Bloemfontein game against Wales (last year), when they beat us when we made 18 or 19 changes from the one week to the other.”

Inconsistent performances

The Boks’ form over the past few seasons has been very inconsistent, with some superb performances mixed in with some poor showings, and this could be due to the amount of mixing and matching that the team management have done during this time.

“We wanted to create as much squad depth as possible. We felt that we had that luxury. Sometimes you take that risk and performances can suffer, because you are changing combinations all the time,” said Nienaber.

“We put the squad under pressure, but we felt that it was good pressure. In terms of that, we have better squad depth than we had in 2019.

“We believe that to defend our World Cup title we will need a full squad performance. So you want players that are in-form and have been exposed to Test match rugby and have been battle hardened, and I believe we have done that.”