Jacques Nienaber acknowledged the failure of his kickers — seven easy points went wayward — after the Springboks’ 19-16 defeat to Ireland on Saturday, but refused to blame them for the result.
It was Danie Craven who always said he picked an ace goalkicker first for the Springboks and then the rest followed, and how he would have shuddered at the foolhardiness of the Boks brains trust who threw away a Test match in Dublin because they could not get their selection basics right.
Of course, the Bok coaches can write it off to experimentation with combinations ahead of next year’s World Cup, and they will, and there is also the extenuating circumstance of the injury to Handré Pollard and the personal issues besetting Elton Jantjies, while Johan Goosen is still finding his feet after a long injury.
Purists like me, though, will argue that you never compromise the ability of the Springboks to win a Test match, but there is the consolation for the Bok coaches in that they now have the confirmation that they cannot start Damian Willemse at flyhalf in the World Cup while Cheslin Kolbe is better suited to the right wing.
Willemse is just too erratic to control the game for long periods, and should revert to fullback where his attacking flair can be better utilised.
So what do the Boks do about flyhalf this week? I would pick Manie Libbok. He is with the Boks and instead of starting him for the SA A game against Munster in Cork on Thursday, which was the original plan, why not slot him straight in?
Let’s not forget that Libbok was the top points scorer in the United Rugby Championship last season and the Boks need his goal-kicking prowess in Marseille on Saturday.
Nienaber acknowledged the failure of his kickers — seven easy points went wayward — after the Boks’ 19-16 defeat to Ireland on Saturday, but refused to blame them for the result.
“I’ll never blame the player for that. They must just keep working at it. The guys have to get better at it,” Nienaber said. “Goal-kicking is important. There are other players who made mistakes, but it goes unseen. It is different for a placekicker because what he does is under the magnifying glass.
“Most people who look back on this game will probably say the goal kicking was the difference between the two sides. Johnny (Sexton) missed a kick or two too, but he nailed the big ones.”
Nienaber said that while the loss hurt, it is no train smash.
“In 2018, we lost 50% of our games, and we still won the World Cup. History would say you can’t win the World Cup when you’ve lost your first pool game and when you’ve lost the first game of a (British & Irish) Lions series, you can’t win the series,” he said.
“It’s a myth, but it builds confidence and momentum, while also creating opportunities to be creative with your team development and team selection.
“Sometimes, you have to consolidate and get back to winning ways to try and build momentum again.
“I think every game is key and the reality is that we played Ireland, who are number one in the world at a packed Aviva Stadium, and we lost by three points.
“We had a couple of opportunities that we didn’t use, and they did. That is the reality. We must learn from it and next week, we play France.
“We must learn quickly, and improve on the things we must improve. Some things will take time and some won’t, but we need to make sure that we fix the fixable things.”
On the injury front, it does not look good for Lood de Jager, who came off shortly before halftime clutching his right arm.
“It is early days, but I don’t think it looks positive,” Nienaber said.
@MikeGreenaway67
