SOUTH AFRICA HAVE named an unchanged matchday 23 for their World Cup semi-final against England in Paris on Saturday [KO 8pm Irish time, Virgin Media].
Rassie Erasmus and Jacques Nienaber have resisted any temptation to make tweaks to the side that beat France in last weekend’s quarter-final at Stade de France.
This means the Boks are sending out the most experienced selection in their history, with a total of 895 caps among them.
15 of the matchday 23 played against England in the World Cup final win back in 2019.
“This may not have much significance, but the fact remains that these players have been here before, and they know what it will take to defeat a top-quality team such as England,” said Boks head coach Nienaber.
“Competition for places in the team is very tight and the coaches had a few in-depth discussions before finalising the team.
“We have players like Lukhanyo Am, Canan Moodie, Andre Esterhuizen, Jasper Wiese, Jean Kleyn, and the list goes on, who are all good enough to be in this team and would have fitted in and done the job just well as the other players.
“But we can only select 23 and everyone in this group is aligned and understands that the country comes first.
“We’re playing for our friends, family and the 60 million people at home who have been supporting us through thick and thin and we are determined to continue giving them hope and something to smile about.”
Nienaber also said the Boks are confident that their players can back up their hugely physical performance in the quarter-finals against France with another one this weekend.
“The World Cup is a long tournament, which is why we went with a policy of rotating,” said Nienaber.
“The majority of the group who played in the quarter-final also played against Ireland. If you talk about physicality, our players told us the Tonga game was one of the most physical they had played in. So the one group got nicely exposed to it against Ireland, and the others got exposed to it against Tonga.
“Physicality is like any conditioning component, you have to get used to it. From that point of view, it set us up nicely for the France game. Obviously, the French game was physical but our policy is if you can’t train on Monday, you can’t play.
“But everyone was good and ready to train, so we got a nice stimulus from a physical point of view against France. We will need that going into England, because if you look at their performances, they are improving every game, they are getting better.”
South Africa (v England):
- 15. Damian Willemse
- 14. Kurt-Lee Arendse
- 13. Jesse Kriel
- 12. Damian de Allende
- 11. Cheslin Kolbe
- 10. Manie Libbok
- 9. Cobus Reinach
- 1. Steven Kitshoff
- 2. Bongi Mbonambi
- 3. Frans Malherbe
- 4. Eben Etzebeth
- 5. Franco Mostert
- 6. Siya Kolisi (captain)
- 7. Pieter-Steph du Toit
- 8. Duane Vermeulen
Replacements:
- 16. Deon Fourie
- 17. Ox Nche
- 18. Vincent Koch
- 19. RG Snyman
- 20. Kwagga Smith
- 21. Faf de Klerk
- 22. Handré Pollard
- 23. Willie le Roux
Referee: Ben O’Keeffe [New Zealand].
