Boks to take ‘mental break’ before turning attention to quarter-finals

The Springboks are well prepared for their two week break before the quarterfinals of the Rugby World Cup get under way next weekend.

The Boks played their final pool match of the competition this past Sunday, thumping Tonga 49-18 to put themselves on the brink of qualification, but they still have to wait for this coming weekend’s clash between Ireland and Scotland to confirm their place in the knockouts.

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While the two UK rivals battle it out to decide the final placings of pool B, the Boks will have a bye weekend and although they aren’t mathematically through, they can arguably start planning for the next round as it will take a highly improbable result to see both Ireland and Scotland qualify ahead of them.

They are thus on course to face hosts France in the quarter-finals as the tournament hosts are expected to beat Italy and secure their place at the top of pool A on Friday night.

Experienced before

Although having a bye before the quarter-finals could stop a team’s momentum, Bok coach Jacques Nienaber admitted that it is something they have experienced before.

“The positive (thing) is it is pretty much similar to what we experienced in 2019 when we also finished our pool quite early,” explained Nienaber.

“I think we had a 12-13 day preparation break before we went into our quarter-final against Japan. It is something we have done before as a group. It worked out well for us back then, so we’ll give the players two to three days off and then start preparing.

“I think in the first week now, (we will) give the guys some time off to get away from the game, to have a little bit of a mental break and then start focusing on what we can do better.”

What will give the Boks a lift heading into the knockouts was their flawless kicking performance against Tonga, with the returning Handre Pollard slotting his four conversions and Manie Libbok slotting his three.

Kicking has been a major talking point around the Bok side over the tournament and it came to a head when Libbok and Faf de Klerk missed four out of five kicks against Ireland, which cost them in a five point loss.

Pollard’s return

So the Bok management will be thrilled with Pollard’s return to international rugby from injury and that it seems to have lit a fire under Libbok.

“He (Pollard) got a proper Test match against Tonga,” said Nienaber. “He got through 50 minutes. I think he will just get better. I think he was solid. You look at his ball carries … that was decisive and good.

“His defence, I thought his level changed well and he put some proper shoulder hits in. I thought his off-the-ball work was good and his kicking game in general was good. The fundamentals (for which) we wanted him to tick the boxes, I think he ticked.”