Paris — Some thought it audacious four years ago when Rassie Erasmus unveiled his team to play in the Rugby World Cup final five days before the grand kickoff.
The then Bok coach didn’t formally name the team until two days before their big day against England, but earlier that week he noted “I’m not bluffing” after revealing Cheslin Kolbe would be the only change to the team that slew the Welsh dragons in the semifinals.
Erasmus has since proudly worn the mantle of rugby maverick.
Echoing his words back in Tokyo Bay four years ago was then defence coach Jacques Nienaber, who sagely noted: “We are process-driven and we like to get consistency.”
The pair stand at the same juncture ahead of Saturday’s final and though the same guiding principles apply, they will vex over a critical selection.
They need to decide the fate of one of the team’s game drivers, if not the one who will take the wheel.
Manie Libbok has performed with pluck and poise since he made his introduction in Test rugby a year ago. It is a much laboured point that he has brought a fresh dimension to the way they attack, as is the one that points to his off days off the kicking tee.
Libbok was unceremoniously removed from the equation in last Saturday’s semifinal against England before the half-hour mark when the Boks were going nowhere slowly.
Libbok’s withdrawal allowed Handré Pollard to underline his credentials as a match winner.
Pollard brings icy precision, but Libbok has given the team much of their recent attacking thrust. If they both get the nod in the match-day 23 against New Zealand, the Boks would have to go with a more traditional five/three split on the bench.
Should they leave Libbok out, it would almost be a betrayal of what they’ve been doing over the past year.
Though the Boks’ innovative use of their bench has become one of their hallmarks since the last RWC, they may again go for a more traditional spread of their resources on the bench.
It is perhaps the flyhalf conundrum and the composition of the bench that Springbok assistant coach Felix Jones had in mind when he admitted on Wednesday that team selection would be tricky this week.
The Boks went into their semifinal against England with an unchanged team last weekend, but Jones believes competition to get into the match-day 23 to be announced on Thursday morning is stiff.
Utility forward Kwagga Smith and fullback Willie le Roux were on Wednesday asked if there are any similarities in their build-up to the final compared to four years ago in Japan. Those memories should run strong through the camp with 16 players available from the match-day 23 that did duty that day available for selection this Saturday.
Herschel Jantjies missed out on squad selection for this campaign, Beast Mtawarira, Francois Louw and Frans Steyn retired from the game, while Malcolm Marx, Lood de Jager and Makazole Mapimpi had to yield to injury.
The spine of the team that won in Japan is still largely intact.
There is of course a slight niggle in that spine. Hooker Bongi Mbonambi remains the subject of a World Rugby investigation for an alleged racial slur he made towards England flank Tom Curry last week.
A Boks spokesperson said on Wednesday that there is no update to the saga and the matter rests with the game’s governing body.
As things stand, Mbonambi is up for selection and even if he is formally charged, a disciplinary hearing is unlikely to be convened before Saturday.
Mbonambi has been central to the Bok cause, especially after fellow hooker Marx was ruled out of the tournament with a knee injury. He has had to rack up the game minutes and was particularly productive in their two knockout matches, playing the whole semifinal match.
Do the Boks have to consider potential fatigue before they unveil their team for the final?
“Players won’t moan about workloads ahead of World Cup finals,” Jones noted.
As Nienaber said four years ago, the Boks are process-driven. Ticking boxes in a particular order now comes naturally to them. The question now is which box they will tick at 10?
