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Boks face interesting choice at blindside flank

rugby13 September 2022 06:51
By:Gavin Rich
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Pieter-Steph du Toit © Gallo Images

Pieter-Steph du Toit has been declared fit and is available for selection to the Springbok team that will be named late Tuesday SA time for Saturday’s penultimate Castle Lager Rugby Championship clash with Argentina in Buenos Aires.

A few top players, including Du Toit, were unavailable for the last game against Australia in Sydney, but assistant coach Deon Davids confirmed that all the players currently with the squad are fit and available for selection.

“Pieter-Steph is fit and he is training. There are no injuries and everyone is available for selection,” said Davids in an online press conference from Buenos Aires, where the Boks have been in camp for the past week after traveling across the Pacific from Australia via New Zealand.

The return to fitness of the 2019 World Rugby Player of the Year does leave coach Jacques Nienaber with an interesting dilemma. Franco Mostert played in Du Toit’s place in Sydney and was outstanding, making influential contributions as both a defender and a carrier as well as in the lineouts.

Mostert has played far less on the blindside flank than Du Toit has, but looks like he is adjusting well to the position and boasts a big work rate. Of course, Du Toit is known for his massive engine too, but just recently he has looked a little short of the form and influence that once saw him acknowledged as the best player on the planet.

He was certainly one of the disappointments when the Boks lost to Australia in Adelaide in their first game Down Under. If you make the next selection on form, then Mostert should start against Argentina, to back Du Toit would be backing reputation. There is of course the other argument, which is that Du Toit should get an opportunity to show if he can raise his game and play his way back. He can do that off the bench.

If everyone is fit, there are some other interesting selections to be made. One selection that will be interesting is scrumhalf, where Faf de Klerk is the recognised first choice but Jaden Hendrikse was good in Sydney.

There might also be some changes directed at the different challenge posed by Argentina, who are a bit more like the Boks in their approach and who place a premium on their physicality in the forward display and who, until the last game against New Zealand that is, were showing massive improvements in their defensive game.

Anticipation of a hard forward battle could see Joseph Dweba for instance returned to the match 23 for Deon Fourie, who was set up in Sydney to be an impact player late in the game because of his pace and work at the breakdown and who ended up coming onto the field as a loose-forward reserve.

Dweba’s more physical presence at forward might be more needed against Argentina, although most Bok fans will be hoping that if he does return, it is on the bench, with Malcolm Marx continuing in the starting team. Marx’s early contributions in getting the Boks onto the front foot were invaluable in Sydney.

The Bok team for the Buenos Aires test will be announced 16.45 SA time on Tuesday.