Springbok Kurt-Lee Arendse Suite.
Gordon Aarons/Gallow Images
- Kurt-Lee Arendse’s hat-trick isn’t enough to keep Makazole Mapimpi and Cheslin Kolbe out of the Bok starting XV.
- The team’s decision to face the All Blacks was reported early in the Rugby Championship campaign.
- Colby admits that incumbents get the heat from the likes of Arendsi.
Springbok coaches have been accused of romanticizing the unexpected in sport with their attention to detail in the past, and few decisions confirm that more than not selecting winger Kurt Lee Arendsee for Saturday’s rugby championship game against New Zealand.
Thanks to his hat-trick in South Africa’s dominant 43-12 win in the tournament’s opening match against Australia last weekend, the former Blitzboks star was assumed to be one of the few players not to feature in the squad advancing to New Zealand. who got a start against the All Blacks.
But when Springbok coach Jack Nenaber announced his line-up for the Mt. Smart Stadium match, Arendse, whose hat-trick took his international tries tally to 10 from eight matches, was nowhere to be found on Match Day 23, as the World Cup began. Makazole Mapimpi and Cheslin Kolbe are preferred.
Read |Etzebeth returns to captain the Springboks against the All Blacks, Willemse at flyhalf
It’s a decision that not only went a long way toward emphasizing the fact that the Bok team the All Blacks would play for had been selected some time ago, Bok coaches also took the horses down the tournament track by selecting players who made a career for them against them. All blacks before.
Nenaber confirmed during his press conference from Auckland that the team that will run out against New Zealand has been telegraphed to Pook’s wider squad.
“We were open with the players so they had a good idea of who he was going to play in [first two] Test matches,” Nenaber explained. “We were honest with them from the start, but the New Zealand national team was also selected because of the form and the injuries the players had.
“I won’t go into any of the players they played themselves in [New Zealand match]. What we wanted was to have a mix of the guys who traveled early and the guys who played against Australia – guys who are battle-hardened and guys who are fresh. ”
Arendse fans may be upset with the horses as training sessions approached him being disqualified because he scored in the only match he played against the All Blacks, a match in which he was also shown a red card for a dangerous tackle on Beauden Barrett in the Mbombela final. year.
springbox:
15 Willy Le Roux, 14 Cheslin Colby, 13 Lujanio AM, 12 Damien De Allende, 11 Makazole Mpembe, 10 Damien Willemse, 9 Pfaff de Klerk, 8 Jasper Veese, 7 Franco Mostert, 6 Quagga Smith, 5 Lowwood de Jager, 4 Abin Etzebeth (Captain), 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 Bongi Mbonambi, 1 Stephen Ketchove
Substitutes: 16 Malcolm Marks, 17 Thomas Du Toit, 18 Vincent Koch, 19 RJ Sneeman, 20 Peter Steve Du Toit, 21 Duane Vermeulen, 22 Grant Williams, 23 Mane Lieboc
But Nienaber didn’t greet the horses with the idea of tournaments starting with: “The first thing is we need a team to build momentum while trying to win the rugby championship. We also need a team for the warm-up matches against Wales and the All Blacks at Twickenham.”
“We said from the start there was no A and B team, the team we picked against Australia is a team we felt had the right mix to compete against Australia, the same goes with this team.” [for New Zealand].
“We weren’t 100% sure how this team would fare due to injuries, but the team we picked for the weekend is a team we feel can compete against a very good team from New Zealand.”
For the neutral, the decision not to pick Arendse in the starting line-up is a bit like the Bok management team making a decision they’ll have to make a little sooner rather than later down the road because they can at the moment.
Arendse – with his scrum cap, pace, forward ability and grit in defense and under the high ball – looks like the closest thing to a ready replacement for Colby, while he has already proven he can also play on the Mapimpi wing by scoring four of his tries on the wing. left.
Kolbe admitted that the heat brought by Arendse was felt very strongly: “The nice thing about this group is that we learn and push each other to get the best out of everyone. We just want to contribute so that the team can see the things I work in training on match day.
“He raises a bar every time we have the chance to wear the green and gold jersey.”
Departure at 09:05.