John Jones
Africa-Press – South-Africa. The Springboks are top of their pool but could still be knocked out of the Rugby World Cup early
South Africa head coach Jacques Nienaber was left stunned when it was suggested to him during a press conference that Ireland and Scotland could work together to ensure the Springboks don’t qualify for the World Cup quarter-finals.
The Springboks boss faced questions from the media after his side saw off a spirited Tonga side with a 49-18 win in Marseille on Sunday night. The bonus point victory, which saw them run in seven tries, puts the defending champions top of Pool B.
However, the final standings in the pool are set to be decided by the monumental clash between Ireland and Scotland next weekend, with both sides, along with the Boks, in with a chance of either making it through to the last eight or crashing out of the tournament in the pool stages.
Despite currently topping the pile, there is a chance that Nienaber’s side could be the ones who miss out. If Scotland secure a bonus point win against Ireland, winning by a margin of 21 points or more, and Andy Farrell’s side score at least four tries to earn themselves a losing bonus point, then the two Six Nations sides will take the top two spots in Pool B and send the Boks crashing out
While that situation playing out is unlikely, particularly given Scotland’s winless run against Ireland for the last six years, it is not impossible. Nienaber is aware there is a chance his side could be dumped out of the competition having played their final hand against the Tongans, but was still taken aback by the suggestion that his rivals could plot against them, a move which he said would “probably be match-fixing” and “extremely disappointing”.
Asked by a French-speaking journalist about a possible conspiracy against the Boks, Nienaber decided to address the suggestion rather than dismiss it out of hand.
“I think between ourselves, Ireland and Scotland, everybody can still miss out on the quarter-finals, every single team, all three of those teams, but all three can also still make it so the Pool will only be decided on Saturday,” the coach said.
“Could I believe in a scenario that they will decide ‘do we want to get this amount of points and then get South Africa out of the way?’ That would probably be match-fixing, I would say. I hope not. Rugby is clean. We wear those t-shirts so hopefully not because that would be extremely disappointing.”
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While they don’t yet know for sure that they will be playing in the quarter-final, South Africa now have a near two-week break with plenty of time for preparation ahead of any last eight clash they may make it to. If they do qualify, they are set to play either France or New Zealand in a blockbuster fixture.
“The positive is it is pretty much similar to what we experienced in 2019 when we also finished our pool quite early,” Nienaber added. “I think we had a 12-13 day preparation break before we went into our quarter-final against Japan. It is something we have done before as a group. It worked out well for us back then, so we’ll give them two-three days off and then start preparing.
“Until we know what the outcome is of the pool and who we will face, the France-New Zealand pool will only be determined on Friday night, so we will only actually know, depending on how (Pool B) finish, we will have a good idea of who we will play.
“I think in the first week now, give the guys some time off to get away from the game, to have a little bit of a mental break and then start focusing on what we can do better. So internally focusing on us on things we must improve if we want to stay in this competition until the end.”
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