Springboks head coach Rassie Erasmus has explained his decision to select rising star Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu on the bench, with Manie Libbok missing out entirely – while hinting that he could still make a late change to his team to face Ireland.
Erasmus has selected a very experienced side to tackle Ireland at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday, with the starting XV containing the second most Test caps in Springbok history – only eclipsed by the one that started the Rugby World Cup final last year.
Meanwhile, the make-up of the bench has once again caught the eye, with Erasmus opting for a 6-2 split amongst the replacements, having selected a 7-1 in favour of the forwards for the last meeting between these two sides.
One of the major talking points from the matchday 23 is the non-selection of playmaker Libbok, who was the Boks‘ first choice number 10 at the start of the World Cup and donned the fly-half jersey in the quarter and semi-final in France last year.
As he did in the World Cup final, Handre Pollard starts in the number 10 shirt with Faf de Klerk as his half-back partner, as Libbok misses out entirely.
Manie Libbok snubbed
Erasmus has explained that the decision to select six forwards on the bench led to Feinberg-Mngomezulu being favoured over Libbok as he can cover more positions and while there is versatility in the starting backline, any changes with the former coming off the bench would lead to less movement.
“Sacha certainly brings something to the party in that we don’t make too many positional changes in the 6-2 split,” the Bok boss explained.
“That is actually where Manie misses out because if the number 12 goes down, then Sacha can go straight into 12 because he played there for the Stormers, and if the 15 goes down, he can go straight into 15 and the same for 10.
“Whereas with Manie, him not making the team is purely because we went with the 6-2 split; he is not as comfortable at 12, meaning Handre Pollard would shift and Manie to ten or full-back, or we would have to move Cheslin Kolbe to full-back with the backline all shifting one position out.
“So it just made more sense to go with Sacha, who can cover all those positions.”
He added: “Sacha, similarly to Grant [Williams], also offers us additional options in the backline, as he can cover fly-half and centre, while Grant is efficient at scrum-half and wing, which places us in a good position with the 6-2 split.”
Late change?
As mentioned above, the Springboks controversially selected a 7-1 split in favour of the forwards in the 2023 Rugby World Cup pool match against Ireland and did so again in the final against New Zealand.
While backing a 6-2 split this time around, Erasmus hinted that there could be a late change to the make-up of his bench due to some fitness concerns in the squad.
“There are one or two niggles (in the squad), so it is still possible to go 7-1,” he said.
“We will give until Thursday to make a decision, but I don’t want to elaborate on that too much.”
Last week, the Springboks confirmed that De Klerk and Cheslin Kolbe would be monitored in training throughout the week but looked set to be fit for the clash against Ireland.
The Boks have a policy that players must train on a Monday in order to make the matchday squad for Saturday, so that suggests that both were able to do so.
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