Springboks bring in Cobus Reinach for England clash

Planet Rugby

Cobus Reinach of the Springboks during the 2021 Rugby Championship game between Argentina and South Africa at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth on 21 August 2021 ©Deryck Foster/Sports Inc

Springbok head coach Jacques Nienaber has named Handré Pollard and Cobus Reinach at half-back as they prepare to face England this weekend.

He has also recalled Lood de Jager at lock for the final Test of the tour against the Red Rose at Twickenham on Saturday.

Pollard (fly-half), Reinach (scrum-half) and De Jager were drafted into the starting XV in rotational switches, which sees Elton Jantjies and Herschel Jantjies join Franco Mostert among the replacements.

Victory for the Springboks over a strong England team will not only see the South Africans retain the number one spot on the world rankings, but would also mark their first unbeaten northern hemisphere tour since 2013.

First meeting since World Cup final

The last time the Springboks beat England in London was in 2014, when they edged the hosts 31-28, but they have won three of their last six outings against their northern hemisphere arch-rivals – the most recent being the Rugby World Cup final in Yokohama in 2019, where the Boks emerged 32-12 victors.

“We built up good momentum in the Tests against Wales and Scotland, and it is important for us to transfer that into our final match of the tour against England, so we opted to make only three changes to the starting team for this weekend’s clash,” Nienaber said.

“England will pose different threats to Scotland, and with that in mind we have decided to start with Handré, Cobus and Lood.

“Elton, Herschel and Franco have shown that they can inject energy and ignite a spark on attack off the bench, which will be handy against an English outfit that we know will be highly charged up for this match.”

Nienaber anticipated an epic battle between the teams this weekend.

“England have made it clear that they’ll come hard at us in this match, and with a few British & Irish Lions players in their midst, home ground advantage and a new record of eight wins in a row against Australia adding to their motivation this weekend, so we know it will be a hard grind,” said the Bok coach.

“That said, we will enter the match equally motivated, especially with the opportunity to retain our status as the top team in the world for a third successive season and winning all three matches in the Castle Lager Outgoing Tour for the first time in eight years being a real prospect.”

South Africa: 15 Willie le Roux, 14 Jesse Kriel, 13 Lukhanyo Am, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Makazole Mapimpi, 10 Handré Pollard, 9 Cobus Reinach, 8 Duane Vermeulen, 7 Kwagga Smith, 6 Siya Kolisi (c), 5 Lood de Jager, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Trevor Nyakane, 2 Bongi Mbonambi, 1 Ox Nché
Replacements: 16 Malcolm Marx, 17 Steven Kitshoff, 18 Vincent Koch, 19 Franco Mostert, 20 Jasper Wiese, 21 Herschel Jantjies, 22 Elton Jantjies, 23 Frans Steyn

Date: Saturday, November 20
Venue: Twickenham Stadium, London
Kick-off: 15:15 GMT
Referee: Andrew Brace (Ireland)
Assistant Referees: Angus Gardner (Australia), Frank Murphy (Ireland)
TMO: Brian MacNeice (Ireland)

 

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