Though he may not win everyone’s vote to fill the crucial fullback role for the Springboks, mercurial Willie le Roux has the full backing of coach Jacques Nienaber.
After being left out of the side that beat Wales last week, the 70-times capped Le Roux is starting for the Boks against Scotland at Murrayfield on Saturday (kickoff 3pm).
An injury to Damian Willemse, who started against Wales, has resulted in Nienaber throwing Le Roux back into front line duty against Scotland.
“Willie’s been brilliant,” Nienaber said.
“We said from the outset that we need rotation and we had an open discussion about it in front of everybody.
“It wasn’t just me and Willie sitting and chatting and then I chat to everyone else.
“The whole team knows what is our plan going forward.
“Willie knew that he wasn’t going to play (against Wales).
“I made it clear to him that if we played a World Cup final then we probably would have started him.
“But we also needed to give Damian some game time, it’s just unfortunate that he got injured.
“This isn’t some project.
“It’s not a project on Willie and not a project involving Damian.
“All we want to do is have Willie, with all his experience, feeding some insights to Damian, showing him the processes he follows on a weekly basis and just talking to him.
“That’s what I mean with a project.
“We’re not letting the older guys hand over the baton to the younger players because we can all see that the experienced guys are still performing at a high level.
“We have a lot of faith in Willie.
“It really was just rotation.
“We know we need to build depth.
“We want to win every game but also see our younger guys grow.”
Asked why Frans Steyn had not been retained after filling in for Willemse and winning a man of the match award against Wales, Nienaber said: “It illustrates that it’s tough to get into this side.
“The 9,10 and 15 of Scotland are established internationals and British & Irish Lions players to boot, so we’re going to need our most experienced back division to deal with that threat.
“Willie has played the majority of our games.
“The great thing about Frans is he knows what we’re busy with.
“We can fall back on him when we’re in a spot of bother, but he’s willing to allow us some leeway to give the younger guys a bit of game time with 2023 in mind.”
Bok forwards coach Deon Davids says his team can expect a tough scrum battle against Scotland.
SA will be pitting their skills against former Springbok assistant coach Pieter de Villiers, who is Scotland’s scrum coach.
“Pieter de Villiers is a very good scrum coach,” Davids said.
“I worked with him during two World Rugby Under 20 championship campaigns with the Junior Springboks and he understands the South African mentality.
“We’ve seen what he has achieved with the Scottish forwards, so they’ll select a technically good and competitive pack.
“That said, our focus is on what we’d like to achieve, and I have to commend Daan Human [Springbok scrum coach] for the work he’s been doing with our pack of forwards.
“We are obviously constantly striving to become better, and we are wary of the fact that the different playing conditions will also be a factor for us.
“This means we have to be tactically and technically sound this weekend to get the desired result.”
HeraldLIVE
Le Roux steps into breach against Scotland
Bok fullback’s experience vital, says Nienaber
Rugby writer
Image: IAN HITCHCOCK/GETTY IMAGES
Though he may not win everyone’s vote to fill the crucial fullback role for the Springboks, mercurial Willie le Roux has the full backing of coach Jacques Nienaber.
After being left out of the side that beat Wales last week, the 70-times capped Le Roux is starting for the Boks against Scotland at Murrayfield on Saturday (kickoff 3pm).
An injury to Damian Willemse, who started against Wales, has resulted in Nienaber throwing Le Roux back into front line duty against Scotland.
“Willie’s been brilliant,” Nienaber said.
“We said from the outset that we need rotation and we had an open discussion about it in front of everybody.
“It wasn’t just me and Willie sitting and chatting and then I chat to everyone else.
“The whole team knows what is our plan going forward.
“Willie knew that he wasn’t going to play (against Wales).
“I made it clear to him that if we played a World Cup final then we probably would have started him.
“But we also needed to give Damian some game time, it’s just unfortunate that he got injured.
“This isn’t some project.
“It’s not a project on Willie and not a project involving Damian.
“All we want to do is have Willie, with all his experience, feeding some insights to Damian, showing him the processes he follows on a weekly basis and just talking to him.
“That’s what I mean with a project.
“We’re not letting the older guys hand over the baton to the younger players because we can all see that the experienced guys are still performing at a high level.
“We have a lot of faith in Willie.
“It really was just rotation.
“We know we need to build depth.
“We want to win every game but also see our younger guys grow.”
Asked why Frans Steyn had not been retained after filling in for Willemse and winning a man of the match award against Wales, Nienaber said: “It illustrates that it’s tough to get into this side.
“The 9,10 and 15 of Scotland are established internationals and British & Irish Lions players to boot, so we’re going to need our most experienced back division to deal with that threat.
“Willie has played the majority of our games.
“The great thing about Frans is he knows what we’re busy with.
“We can fall back on him when we’re in a spot of bother, but he’s willing to allow us some leeway to give the younger guys a bit of game time with 2023 in mind.”
Bok forwards coach Deon Davids says his team can expect a tough scrum battle against Scotland.
SA will be pitting their skills against former Springbok assistant coach Pieter de Villiers, who is Scotland’s scrum coach.
“Pieter de Villiers is a very good scrum coach,” Davids said.
“I worked with him during two World Rugby Under 20 championship campaigns with the Junior Springboks and he understands the South African mentality.
“We’ve seen what he has achieved with the Scottish forwards, so they’ll select a technically good and competitive pack.
“That said, our focus is on what we’d like to achieve, and I have to commend Daan Human [Springbok scrum coach] for the work he’s been doing with our pack of forwards.
“We are obviously constantly striving to become better, and we are wary of the fact that the different playing conditions will also be a factor for us.
“This means we have to be tactically and technically sound this weekend to get the desired result.”
HeraldLIVE
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