Ireland coach may envy Rassie his halfback dilemma

The perception that the Castle Lager test Series that starts with the first game in Pretoria on Saturday can be seen as an extension of last year’s Rugby World Cup, with the Springboks having one more point to prove against an Ireland team in a similar mode, can be underlined by the likely continuity in the team selections.

Bok coach Rassie Erasmus has 12 players in his squad for this series that started the last game between the two nations, which was the World Cup Pool game between them in Paris just over eight months ago. With Siya Kolisi having shown Erasmus that the rumours, sourced from his French club, were just rumours and no more than that, it is pretty much business as usual for the Boks as they go into this series.

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They have some exciting new assistant coaches and of course Erasmus has lost his long time right hand man Jacques Nienaber, who coached the team to success at the last World Cup, to Leinster. The different layers the new coaches bring, and the gap that Nienaber’s departure might leave (this is something to consider for the former head coach was very hands-on and a constant presence) will become evident in time. But for now, when it comes to playing personnel and the essence of their approach, these two games are likely to be an extension of the World Cup campaign.

JUST THREE PLAYERS MISSING FROM PARIS STARTING TEAM

The only Bok players from the team that started in Paris on 23 September last year that are not with the squad preparing for the series in Pretoria are fullback Damian Willemse, who is injured, as is prop Steven Kitshoff, while No 8 Jasper Wiese is suspended.

This was the Bok team for that Pool match: Damian Willemse, Kurt-Lee Arendse, Jesse Kriel, Damian de Allende, Cheslin Kolbe, Manie Libbok, Faf de Klerk, Jasper Wiese, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Siya Kolisi (captain), Franco Mostert, Eben Etzebeth, Frans Malherbe, Bongi Mbonambi, Steven Kitshoff.

Added to the three starting players not available this time, you can add two reserves in Deon Fourie and Jean Kleyn. Both are out injured, although it is probably a subject of speculation whether either of them will be used at Bok level again.

Fourie did a magnificent job at the World Cup and was one of the heroes of the triumph, but he is not young, while with Salmaan Moerat back in action after injury ruled him out of World Cup consideration, there’s intense competition in Kleyn’s position of lock.

For the record, this was the Bok bench for that game in Paris, which was won 13-8 by Ireland: Fourie, Ox Nche, Trevor Nyakane, Jean Kleyn, RG Snyman, Marco van Staden, Kwagga Smith, Cobus Reinach.

If Erasmus wants to, he can name five of those players in his match day squad for Loftus, giving him 18 players who were part of the effort against Ireland last time.


GIBSON-PARK LEAVES BIG HOLE FOR IRELAND

It is not a scenario completely different from the one faced by the Ireland coach, Andy Farrell. This was the team that played the RWC Pool game: Hugo Keenan, Mack Hansen, Garry Ringrose, Bundee Aki, James Lowe, Johnny Sexton (captain), Jamison Gibson-Park, Caelan Doris, Josh van der Flier, Peter O’Mahony, James Ryan, Tadhg Beirne, Tadhg Furlong, Ronan Kelleher, Andrew Porter.

Replacements: Dan Sheehan, David Kilcoyne, Finlay Bealham, Iain Henderson, Ryan Baird, Conor Murray, Jack Crowley, Robbie Henshaw.

There are 11 players from that starting team with the group in South Africa - the absentees are scrumhalf Gibson-Park, who is injured, flyhalf and captain Sexton, who has retired, and fullback Keenan (with the French Sevens team) and wing Hansen (injured). Most of the reserves are in the touring squad too.

Munster No 10 Jack Crowley was on the bench in Paris and has subsequently proven himself a steady replacement for Sexton, but it is at halfback that the Boks may have an edge they didn’t have eight months ago. For Gibson-Park was very much the playmaker for Ireland in the Six Nations, and life without Sexton might just have been made easier by his continued presence.

The injury he sustained in Leinster’s loss to the Vodacom Bulls in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship semifinal a fortnight ago might have been more of a body blow to the Irish chances of crossing another frontier by winning their first ever series in South Africa than many might think.

BOK COACH HAS OPPOSITE PROBLEM

Bok coach Erasmus has the opposite problem. When it comes to flyhalf in particular, he faces a thorny dilemma that revolves around who to leave out between two proven class international players rather than him being short of personnel in that crucial position.

When the Boks lost to Ireland in Dublin on the 2022 November tour and again in last year’s Pool game, missed kicks played a role in the frustration for Bok fans. There was a man missing from both games - Handre Pollard was injured in 2022 and missed the tour, with Damian Willemse wearing the No 10 at the AVIVA Stadium, and he wasn’t yet ready to play a role in Paris after returning from injury last September.

Pollard’s cool credentials from the tee are well known. Without him, the Boks wouldn’t have won the World Cup. But you could also argue that if it were not for Manie Libbok’s attacking skills the Boks would not have got beyond the quarterfinal against France. \

It was his ability to see space and his passing skills that enabled the Boks to remain in the game when they were being outplayed by the tournament hosts and yet managed to match their three tries in the first half.

Pollard is a much better wet weather flyhalf than Libbok is, but with this series set to be played in what should be dry conditions in Pretoria and Durban, Libbok’s X-factor may well see him returned to the starting role he relinquished to Pollard for the World Cup final, where the forecasts were for similar conditions to what nearly tripped up the Boks in the semifinal against England.

Erasmus, like was the case in Paris for both the quarter and semi, will still have Pollard present to come on and slot clutch kicks later in the game should it be necessary. Not that Libbok is always a liability from the tee, there are days when he slots them from everywhere, and the Bok coaches will know which way he is heading relatively early in the game.

Either way it is a dilemma for Erasmus, one that knowing him he has probably long since made a decision on, and one that should be the envy of Farrell, who is without two players that were hugely influential in his team’s run of success before the day they came a cropper against the All Blacks last October.

Castle Lager test Series: South Africa v Ireland

6 July: Loftus Versfeld, Pretoria (Kickoff 5:05pm)

13 July: Hollywoodbets Kings Park, Durban (Kickoff 5:05pm)

Springbok squad for Castle Lager Incoming Series:

Forwards:

Phepsi Buthelezi (Hollywoodbets Sharks), Ben-Jason Dixon (DHL Stormers), Pieter-Steph du Toit (Toyota Verblitz), Thomas du Toit (Bath), Eben Etzebeth (Hollywoodbets Sharks). Johan Grobbelaar (Vodacom Bulls), Vincent Koch (Hollywoodbets Sharks), Siya Kolisi (Racing 92), Frans Malherbe (DHL Stormers), Malcolm Marx (Kubota Spears), Bongi Mbonambi (Hollywoodbets Sharks), Salmaan Moerat (DHL Stormers), Franco Mostert (Honda Heat), Ox Nche (Hollywoodbets Sharks), Trevor Nyakane (Racing 92/Hollywoodbets Sharks), Evan Roos (DHL Stormers), Kwagga Smith (Blu Revs), RG Snyman (Munster/Leinster), Gerhard Steenekamp (Vodacom Bulls), Marco van Staden (Vodacom Bulls), Jan-Hendrik Wessels (Vodacom Bulls), Jasper Wiese (Leicester Tigers).

Backs:

Lukhanyo Am (Hollywoodbets Sharks), Kurt-Lee Arendse (Vodacom Bulls), Damian de Allende (Wild Knights), Faf de Klerk (Canon Eagles), Andre Esterhuizen (Harlequins/Hollywoodbets Sharks), Aphelele Fassi (Hollywoodbets Sharks), Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu (DHL Stormers), Cheslin Kolbe (Suntory Sungoliath), Jesse Kriel (Canon Eagles), Wilie le Roux (Vodacom Bulls), Manie Libbok (DHL Stormers), Makazole Mapimpi (Hollywoodbets Sharks), Handre Pollard (Leicester Tigers), Cobus Reinach (Montpellier), Morne van den Berg (Emirates Lions), Edwill van der Merwe (Emirates Lions), Grant Williams (Hollywoodbets Sharks).

Ireland Squad

Forwards: Ryan Baird (Leinster), Finlay Bealham (Connacht), Tadhg Beirne (Munster), Caelan Doris (Leinster), Tadhg Furlong (Leinster), Cian Healy (Leinster), Rob Herring (Ulster), Cormac Izuchukwu (Ulster)*, Oli Jager (Munster), Ronan Kelleher (Leinster), Joe McCarthy (Leinster), Peter O’Mahony (Munster - captain), Tom O’Toole (Ulster), Andrew Porter (Leinster), Cian Prendergast (Connacht), James Ryan (Leinster), Dan Sheehan (Leinster), Nick Timoney (Ulster), Josh van der Flier (Leinster).

Backs: Bundee Aki (Connacht), Caolin Blade (Connacht), Craig Casey (Munster), Jack Crowley (Munster), Ciaran Frawley (Leinster), Robbie Henshaw (Leinster), Jordan Larmour (Leinster), James Lowe (Leinster), Stuart McCloskey (Ulster), Conor Murray (Munster), Calvin Nash (Munster), Jimmy O’Brien (Leinster), Jamie Osborne (Leinster)*, Sam Prendergast (Leinster)*, Garry Ringrose (Leinster), Jacob Stockdale (Ulster).