Rugby Championship a selectorial balancing act for the Springboks

South Africa head coach Jacques Nienaber insists that they are determined to win the Rugby Championship, but not at the expense of their ultimate goal later in the year.

In 2019, the Springboks claimed the southern hemisphere title and then went on to win the Rugby World Cup in Japan.

They will look to do the same this time around, but Nienaber is willing to sacrifice the Rugby Championship if it means the Boks are better prepared for the World Cup.

Plan and rotation

“We’ve got a plan in our head in terms of how we’re going to go into this Rugby Championship,” he told reporters.

“Let’s divide it into six matches, with three determining the outcome of the Rugby Championship and three warm-up matches, which is Argentina, Wales and New Zealand.

“Obviously, we want to go and try and win the Rugby Championship but, depending on what happens, if we can rejig and look for combinations [we will].

“We always want to win every single match but there might be some rotational changes within the six Test matches leading up to the World Cup.”

Logically, the warm-up matches provide South Africa with the best chance to rotate, but Nienaber is wary of losing momentum ahead of the World Cup.

Those final games against Wales and New Zealand may therefore see them fielding stronger than expected line-ups.

Injuries and depth

“You want to go into the World Cup with momentum,” he added.

“We probably have a plan in terms of how we want to go into the first three Test matches but, depending on injuries and how much squad depth there is per position, we might rejig even in the Rugby Championship.

“After the three games in the Rugby Championship, we might be getting guys back from injury so we might start introducing them in that Argentina away game.

“We might need to build momentum in the following two games, so I think we’ve got a plan set out in how we want to tackle those first six Test matches, but we will have to look and see how things are going.”

Fixtures

The Rugby Championship

Saturday, July 8 – Springboks vs Australia (Loftus Versfeld, Pretoria)

Saturday, July 17 – Springboks vs New Zealand (MT Smart Stadium, Auckland)

Saturday, July 29 – Springboks vs Argentina (Emirates Airline Park, Johannesburg)

Rugby World Cup warm-up matches

Saturday, August 5 – Springboks v Argentina (Velez Sarsfield, Buenos Aires)

Saturday, August 19 – Springboks vs Wales (Principality Stadium, Cardiff)

Friday, August 25 – SA vs New Zealand (Twickenham, London)

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