Same again for Springboks in semi - South Africa name team to play ...
Team news
PRESLES - South Africa head coach Jacques Nienaber has announced his squad to play England in their Rugby World Cup 2023 semi-final at Stade de France on Saturday, 21 October.
Thu 19 October, 2023
· 2 min readSouth Africa head coach Jacques Nienaber has named an unchanged match-day 23 to face England in their Rugby World Cup 2023 semi-final at Stade de France on Saturday, 21 October, with the same starting XV and replacements that beat France at the same venue in the quarter-finals. Cobus Reinach and Duane Vermeulen keep their places at scrum-half and number eight respectively.
1 Steven Kitshoff2 Mbongeni Mbonambi3 Frans Malherbe4 Eben Etzebeth5 Franco Mostert6 Siya Kolisi (c)7 Pieter-Steph du Toit8 Duane Vermeulen9 Cobus Reinach10 Manie Libbok11 Cheslin Kolbe12 Damian de Allende13 Jesse Kriel14 Kurt-Lee Arendse15 Damian Willemse
Replacements:16 Deon Fourie17 Ox Nche18 Vincent Koch19 RG Snyman20 Kwagga Smith21 Faf de Klerk 22 Handre Pollard23 Willie Le Roux
• There are six players in this match-day team who have played in each of South Africa's past two Rugby World Cup semi-finals, in 2015 and 2019: Willie Le Roux, Damian de Allende, Handre Pollard, Frans Malherbe, Eben Etzebeth, and Duane Vermeulen. • This is the third time since 2021 they have named a 5-3 (forwards-to-backs) split on the bench against England after choosing a 6-2 split for the RWC 2019 final. • There are 13 survivors in this match-day squad from the RWC 2019 final, including eight named to start both games - Bongi Mbonambi, Frans Malherbe, Eben Etzebeth, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Duane Vermeulen, Damian de Allende, Cheslin Kolbe and Siya Kolisi.• Eben Etzebeth has scored three of his six career tries across his past eight matches, after crossing just three times across his first 110 tests played. He has made the most dominant tackles (7) of any Springbok at RWC 2023. • Kurt-Lee Arendse has scored 13 tries in 13 tests for the South Africa since making his debut in June 2022, including in the quarter-final against France. • Siya Kolisi will equal John Smit for most games as South Africa captain at the Rugby World Cup in his 11th test in charge. • Manie Libbok has put up the second-most high kicks of any player at RWC2023 with 10, enjoying a retention success-rate of 30%. He has only played 20 minutes of test rugby against England, coming off the bench in their 27-13 victory at Twickenham last year. • Handre Pollard, the replacement fly-half for this match, scored 22 points in the RWC2019 final against England with six penalty goals and two conversions. • Handre Pollard has kicked 100 per cent of his goal at RWC2023 and has kicked his past 11 goal attempts at Stade de France dating back to 2017.
Last updated: Oct 19, 2023, 7:18:01 AM
