Springbok scrumhalf Grant Williams didn’t only kick the door down with his performances off the bench in the Castle Lager Rugby Championship games thus far, but rather more from the moment he stepped into the Bok squad.
Williams was the one interesting selection for the Boks, elevated to the starting line-up for his fourth cap for the national squad as coach Jacques Nienaber selected an exciting pacy squad for Saturday’s test match.
And Williams is the clear winner in it all, as his speed off the mark has won him the right to partner Manie Libbok in the halfbacks as the Boks look to utilise the fast outfield on Saturday.
The #Springboks starting team for Saturday's Test against Argentina show nine changes from the Auckland match - more here: https://t.co/9jg5HEwTbU ??#StrongerTogether pic.twitter.com/kCMFyeXhNJ
— Springboks (@Springboks) July 25, 2023
Nienaber said Williams had made an impression when he wasn’t in the top two scrumhalves for the Boks and that went a long way to making the decision to give him a start against Argentina.
“We are fortunate that we have five very good scrumhalves. Someone asked me in the week about Grant - and it is not only the two games that he came off the bench - it is also last year when he didn’t get an opportunity - when he was No 4 or five in the pecking order because the other guys were all fit, got game time and were playing well,” Nienaber explained.
OPPORTUNITY
“It is how he trained, how he performed for his franchise. It is not just how he did in the last two games when he came off the bench - it is what he did since he has been in the mix with us. He has always been a guy who has given it his all and deserves an opportunity. And through things that happened to other scrumhalves, he got an opportunity and he is definitely putting up his hand there.”
It also begs the question with just one game after this before the World Cup team announcement, whether the Boks would be giving the two other scrumhalves - Jaden Hendrikse and Herschel Jantjies - a test match before they name the final squad of 33.
PACE IN THE BACKLINE
Nienaber smiled when asked about the pace in the backline - with the prospect of the twinkle toes of Cheslin Kolbe and Kurt-Lee Arendse combining in an attack being a relishing prospect.
“I don’t know if it is a squad that will run the ball. That will be determined by what the Argentinean team gives us in defence. Like we mentioned last week, the key for us is to balance performance, getting momentum on the field, and also balancing that so that we spread as much minutes across the squad as possible. The key thing for us is to try and balance that is by winning as a team, performances and also spreading the load,” he said.
AERIAL BOMBARDMENT
But there is something the Boks are expecting and that is an aerial bombardment - especially with Argentina having seen how the Boks struggled in Auckland with the high ball.
“Probably one of the big things we spoke about in the review was our kicking game against New Zealand. We were found a little bit short in terms of our contestable kicking game that New Zealand launched on us. Funnily enough that is one of the strengths of Argentina. They have a very good contestable kicking game. It is almost a double-edged sword, because it is something we want to fix from playing New Zealand, but it is also something we will have to fix playing against Argentina.”
Elsewhere, the start for Malcolm Marx would have been welcomed, but far from being an elevation, Nienaber reiterated the Boks are “spreading the load” and ensuring that all squad members have enough game time when they get to the World Cup.
HOOKER SELECTIONS
“In terms of other positions - hooker, bomb squad etc, if you look at the amount of game minutes that Bongi had, he probably had a bit more test match exposure than Malcolm had because he was playing in both games. Again it comes back to the thing - we as a group know that defending the World Cup will take a squad effort and our challenge is to make sure we spread that load between the squad.
“We don’t want to go in cold against Scotland in that first game of the World Cup - with one or two guys having the majority of the match minutes and then if you pick an injury or two, you bring in a guy cold who hasn’t been part of your setup.
“That’s the balance that we would like to have. You don’t want to have one guy taking up 80 per cent of the minutes and the other guys not having many. We’re trying to balance that and again sometimes it does come at a bit of a risk. We did believe the team that we selected to face Australia was good enough to beat Australia. We did believe the team we selected for New Zealand was good enough to beat New Zealand - and we did know some of the players would be cold going into that game because a lot of them haven’t played rugby for a long time. They got stronger as the game went on and now the team we selected against Argentina we believe is good enough to beat Argentina.”
Argentina will name their squad for the clash on Thursday.