Faf de Klerk missed two penalties.
At Stade de France, Saint-Denis
- The goalkicking chickens came home to roost for the Springboks in their 13-8 loss against Ireland, but Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber said that it wasn’t the sole reason for the defeat.
- The Springboks missed 11 points from the tee in a game where they were inaccurate on attack and wasted chances.
- The Springboks face Tonga in their next game in Marseille on 1 October, with an eye on the Scotland/Ireland game in Paris on 7 October.
- Visit News24’s Rugby World Cup 2023 zone for fixtures, pools, profiles, top stories
A defiant Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber said his charges’ suspect goalkicking was not the sole reason for their 13-8 defeat against Ireland in a heated and absorbing Pool B clash at the Stade de France on Saturday.
South Africa left 11 points on the field off the kicking tee, allowing Ireland to not just stay in the game, but gain a crucial win that gives them a real chance of finishing top of the group.
Manie Libbok’s opening penalty would prove to be the Boks’ only successful kick to poles on the night as he subsequently missed another three-pointer as well as a conversion, before Faf de Klerk missed a difficult penalty that came off the crossbar and was wide with another.
Nienaber agreed the missed point-scoring opportunities from the tee were costly yet believes his troops’ inability to convert their entries into the Irish 22m area was where they truly lost the game.
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“Hat’s off to Ireland, they were better on the night, but yes, we missed a couple of points off the tee,” he said.
“It’s not the reason for not getting over the line because in the first half alone, we missed two balls close to the line.
“We had another two opportunities in the second half, which, along with the points from the tee that we missed, is probably the reason why [we fell short].
“But it’s not the only reason we lost. I know you guys will probably say that, but there were opportunities that we had, like the one in the first half when we lost the ball under the poles.
“At the back end of the game, there was the last maul, we had a great opportunity there, so that’s why we say hats off to Ireland. They were better than us on the night.”
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With Handre Pollard back in the squad and having trained this week, his claim for selection in next Sunday’s Test against Tonga in Marseille is surely strengthened in light of the kicking meltdown.
Whether he plays ahead of Libbok remains to be seen, particularly because the mercurial Stormers pivot clearly offers a different dimension in general play and kept Ireland’s defence guessing with excellent option-taking.
However, with the Boks only getting one point from a possible four from the game, they now have to keep a more discerning eye on the outcome of the Ireland/Scotland game on October 7 in Paris.
The five-point defeat though doesn’t negatively affect South Africa’s points difference.
“We’ll have to sit down and discuss because there are a lot of things that go into team selection,” Nienaber said.
“We’ll probably get the medical status of the team in the next 24 to 48 hours, from where we’ll go through our team selection processes. We have an eight-day turnaround before the next game.”