Lood in as Boks beef up for Italy

Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus has selected the imposing physical presence of Lood de Jager into his first choice team for Friday night’s must-win Pool B game against Italy in Shizouka.

Franco Mostert has been the first choice second row partner to Eben Etzebeth for much of Erasmus’ reign as Bok coach, chiefly because of the momentum that the gargantuan but surprisingly athletic De Jager lost through injuries that kept him out of rugby for part of both 2018 and 2019.

While Mostert hasn’t let the Boks down and boasts a phenomenal work-rate, De Jager is a special player who brings X-factor and greater physicality to add to an engine that isn’t much inferior to the man he replaces.

Of course, rugby is played by squads of 23 players these days and not just a starting team of 15, so perhaps it is not entirely accurate to say that Mostert has been dropped. He appears on a bench that has been loaded with forwards, an indication of both Erasmus’ respect for the strength of the Italy pack as well as possibly his conviction of where this tournament is headed.

Both Erasmus and some of his players have made it increasingly obvious that they see the pack and a strong forward and first phase emphasis as the key to their chances of winning the World Cup in the prevailing humid conditions.

De Jager was the man of the match in the last game against Namibia and has been rewarded for his strong performance. He showed with his energetic and powerful performance against South Africa’s neighbours that he has regained his momentum after coming back from his long injury lay-off after the completion of the Super Rugby season.

The coach has gone for a six/two split between forwards and backs respectively, with Faf de Klerk and Frans Steyn the only backs among the replacements. There have been three changes to the Bok starting pack in the first choice team that played against the All Blacks in Yokohama at the start of the tournament, all of them in the pack.

Apart from De Jager coming in at lock, Tendai Mtawarira and Bongi Mbonambi come in to start at loosehead prop and hooker ahead of Steven Kitshoff and Malcolm Marx respectively. Vincent Koch comes in on the bench for the injured Trevor Nyakane, who has flown home to South Africa.

Erasmus has included all four of his locks - Etzebeth, De Jager, Mostert and RG Snyman in his match day squad.

There might have been a temptation to make changes at the back, with Willie le Roux surely hanging onto his hold of the No 15 jersey by a thread after a number of very average performances. In that regard it is interesting to see Steyn selected as the only outside back reserve, ostensibly covering flyhalf and fullback as well as centre. Jesse Kriel, who missed the Namibian game because of a hamstring injury, didn’t train with the squad on Monday and was always unlikely to be included in the 23.

Wing Makazole Mapimpi and centre Lukhanyo Am will be starting their third matches in succession, with Am playing successive games because of the injury to Kriel.

SOUTH AFRICA TEAM:

Willie le Roux, Cheslin Kolbe, Lukhanyo Am, Damian de Allende, Makazole Mapimpi, Handre Pollard, Faf de Klerk, Duane Vermeulen, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Siya Kolisi, Lood de Jager, Eben Etzebeth, Frans Malherbe, Bongi Mbonambi, Tendai Mtawarira.

Replacements: Malcolm Marx, Steven Kitshoff, Vincent Koch, RG Snyman, Franco Mostert, Francois Louw, Hershel Jantjies, Frans Steyn.