Durban - Springboks coach Jacques Nienaber has moved swiftly to address a growing furore over the non-invitation of red-hot Stormers No 8 Evan Roos to the year’s first alignment camp, saying emphatically that the door is not shut on the 22-year-old or any other player for that matter.
Nienaber was speaking to the media from Durban where an alignment camp starts on Sunday afternoon and concludes on Tuesday.
The subject of invitations to the camp was the very first subject Nienaber addressed and he stressed that the camp is simply an information-sharing exercise and that no squad has been selected.
Nienaber said he would announce a squad for the series against Wales in June towards the end of the United Rugby Championship in May, probably after the quarter-finals of the competition.
However, Nienaber did emphasise that his Rugby World Cup 2023 hat has been firmly on for some time and that experienced players would be required to defend the Webb Ellis Cup.
“There are 519 days left until the start of France 2023 and about 18 Test matches if we can also get a few warm-up games, in which to get everybody up to speed,” the coach said.
“We want older, experienced players who are good enough to win the World Cup and then we want some younger guys to push them but they must also have enough experience.
“You can’t be sure what you can expect from a guy with under, say, 10 caps. I am not saying he won’t perform well but with a player who has 20 caps or more you know for sure what to expect.”
Nienaber used the loose forward position to explain his thinking.
“Loose forward is getting a lot of discussion because there are so many players in form, so let’s discuss the loosies,” he said.
“Older guys like Duane Vermeulen, Siya Kolisi I believe can still make it to the World Cup provided they play good rugby every Saturday, and so too can the 10 or so guys that we have used at loose forward since we started together in 2018.
“The likes of Japser Wiese, the Du Preez twins, Reinhard Elstadt, Marco van Staden, Kwagga Smith... We would roughly like to give all the guys around four Tests each. We don’t really have that much time to the World Cup but I can assure you that the door is not shut on Evan Roos and Elrigh Louw, for example. Bear in mind that we will probably only take five loose forwards to the World Cup.
“In the meantime, we are watching every player very closely. Within three hours of every game played around the world involving our guys, we have dissected the players' performance. Every kick, pass, tackle is evaluated and we have been building a roadmap for each guy.
“And if we see a guy is dropping off in performance we contact him and his coach and we discuss an intervention training programme to get him back up where we want him to be.”
As far as the alignment camps are concerned — there will also be one in Europe for overseas-based players and another in May— Nienaber said that the purpose was for him to align with some players he does not know too well and for the players to be aligned with what is expected of them as Springboks.
“An example is (Bulls flyhalf) Johann Goosen. He has been invited because I don’t have a relationship with him because I have never met him. So I want to get to know him, pick up on his character, see where he is at and find out if he wants to play in a World Cup.”
IOL Sport