Springboks could be forced into late team change – report
· The South African
As the Springboks prepared for this Saturday’s second Test against the All Blacks, one of the major decisions revolved around who would be the best option at flyhalf.
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In the end, Rassie Erasmus and the coaches opted to entrust experienced Handre Pollard with a return to the No 10 jersey, while Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu dropped to the bench.
However, according to Netwerk24, there is now real concern over a calf injury that Pollard is struggling with, and he could now be forced into a late withdrawal from the team.
If that is the case, it’s likely that Manie Libbok will be drafted straight in the starting XV, allowing Feinberg-Mngomezulu to retain his place in the ‘bomb squad’ as planned.
Some good news for Springboks
Part of the reason for Pollard’s selection did seem to be related to the possibility of a wet-weather match, but the forecast has improved in recent days.
It now looks likely to be a cool and cloudy day, but only light and intermittent rain is predicted.
Kick off this Saturday is at 17:10.
The Springboks arrived in Cape Town on Wednesday evening after completing their main training block in Johannesburg earlier in the day, and had Thursday off to rest and switch into match mode before Friday’s captains run.
“The important thing was to park that game and take the learnings as quickly as we could,” prop Thomas du Toit told the media in the Mother City on Thursday.
“I think we’ve done an incredible job over the last couple of years putting each game in its own box and not looking back at what went wrong the whole week, but rather trying to rectify as much as we can and fix things as quickly as possible.
“By Monday afternoon we had a proper review, and we worked on the things that went wrong on the training field this week.”
Stats and facts:
Springbok record against New Zealand:
Played: 111, Won: 43, Lost: 64, Drawn: 4. Points for: 1 866; Points against: 2 302; Tries scored: 182; Tries conceded: 253. Win %: 37,7%.