Manie Libbok must start at flyhalf in all three South African Rugby Championship Tests in July. The greater his Test minutes, the more comfort there will be in terms of his selection at the World Cup in France later this year.
Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber and national director of rugby Rassie Erasmus have indicated they will use split match-day squads for the tournament’s opening two matches against Australia in Pretoria on July 8 and New Zealand in Auckland on July 15.
The Bok coaches, as they have done in previous tournaments, will send a core group of players to Auckland to prepare for the Test match, while a secondary group stays in South Africa to play the tournament opener.
It has worked for the Boks in the past, and they have got positive results from the mix and match. It also worked in the Rugby Championship when the Boks fielded two different run-on XVs against Argentina’s Pumas on successive weekends and won both matches by 20-odd points.
The nature of the Bok squad is that there is very little to separate a definitive A team pack and a B team pack. If you picked two packs from the current squad, it would be one hell of an arm wrestle and there would be no clear-cut pre-game favourite.
It isn’t quite the same situation among the backs and there is a difference between the first and second cabs off the rank, especially at halfback and in the midfield.
Faf de Klerk is comfortably the No.1 pick at scrumhalf and Damian de Allende and Lukhanyo Am, at Nos 12 and 13, have no equal in the Springbok set-up. Damian Willemse has the potential to develop into a world class No.12, and I believe it is his best position, even more so than at No.10.
Libbok, on the Springboks year-end tour in 2022, played three Tests as a substitute against France, Italy and England respectively and thrived in the last two matches.
I expect this change to become more of a probability after the 2023 World Cup, especially if De Allende is to play internationally for a few seasons. De Allende’s Test game time would be more calculated and managed than it has been over the past four years, where he has been an automatic choice to start when available.
Handré Pollard remains Nienaber’s go-to starting No.10, with the option to also play at No.12, as he did in the SA under 20 World Championship campaign. Robert du Preez started at No.10 and Pollard played 12. Pollard played flyhalf again in his final year as the captain of South Africa’s under 20s.
Pollard won’t play in the Rugby Championship because of injury and Willemse, who (in Pollard’s absence) started for the Springboks at No.10 in the latter part of 2022, has been battling an injury post the United Rugby Championship. In this World Cup year there will be no risks taken with player niggles.
Veteran flyhalf Elton Jantjies has been drafted into the squad as flyhalf cover, but the word cover should apply when considering his selection at the possible expense of Libbok, who was the South African and URC’s league’s form No.10 this year.
Libbok, on the Springboks year-end tour in 2022, played three Tests as a substitute against France, Italy and England respectively and thrived in the last two matches.
He needs game time at No.10 and I hope the Bok coaching staff trust him to start against the Wallabies and All Blacks on successive weekends, in South Africa and in New Zealand. Those two experiences would be worth more than 160 playing minutes come the World Cup.
The Bok coaches, in explaining Jantjies’s inclusion as late cover, pointed to his vast experience of playing in 48 Test matches in the last decade. Using that same argument, the only way Libbok can get the Test experience is if he gets game time.
Libbok is a naturally attacking No.10 who adds a dimension to any team if given the freedom to play naturally, albeit aligned to the structure of the team.
I believe he can transfer his URC form to the Test arena, but he needs Test minutes — and lots of them over the next few months.
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