Vincent Koch eager to take chance to show his worth against Romania

Springbok prop Vincent Koch is eager to take his chance and prove his worth when the Boks face Romania in their second pool match of the Rugby World Cup in Bordeaux on Sunday afternoon.

Koch is the ‘fifth choice’ prop in the Bok squad and he now has a big opportunity to show what he can do against the Romanians.

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Steven Kitshoff and Frans Malherbe are considered the team’s starters while Ox Nche and Trevor Nyakane have been doing the ‘bomb squad’ role off the bench.

Koch will now hope to impress the Bok selectors in the match on Sunday against a team that they don’t know too well, but are expecting a physical contest against.

“For all of us it’s an opportunity. We are representing the Springboks. You want to deliver a performance that is best for the team. If that is good enough the coaches will select the best players for the next game. We want to contribute and make the country proud,” explained Koch.

“I don’t really know much about them but of course we’ve been analysing them this week. We saw they have a decent forward pack, they play with passion and they want to make their people back home very proud.

“We are looking forward to a nice physical battle against them, and of course their backs can do whatever they want.”

Fringe players

The Boks have named a starting XV full of mainly fringe players for the match, with a sprinkling of starters in the match 23, and having suffered a few big injuries recently they will be eager to get past the Romanian game without any other concerns.

The team will have seen how Romania played against Ireland, so they will know what to expect and know what they have to do to come away from the match with a full house of points.

“I thought their forwards did really well against Ireland. They stole a few lineouts and the scrum was decent as well,” said Koch.

“So we’re going to play the way we want to play. We want to get better. As South Africa we pride ourselves on set-pieces and we want to get stronger on that.”