It’s win or bust for Springboks

Coach Nienaber has admitted the Springboks’ Test against Tonga in Marseille on Sunday is now a win or bust for their Rugby World Cup title bid. 

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The Boks are second on the log in Pool B on 10 points, four behind Ireland who lead the group on 14 points.

Tonga are in fourth place without any points after suffering defeats against Ireland and Scotland – two of the strongest teams in the pool on the world rankings – but the Boks are not leaving anything to chance to book their place in the top eight and they are determined to get their campaign back on track and to build momentum after going down 13-8 against Ireland last weekend.

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Looking forward to the match against Tonga, Nienaber said it was vital to improve a few areas of their game to book a quarter-final spot and attempt to defend their title.

“We obviously have goals if you take the results out of the way,” said Nienaber.

“Firstly, we need a win, then a bonus point and a good points difference, and then there are things that we need to rectify which we didn’t get right against Ireland. We need to get our foundations right to get to the quarter-final and onward otherwise we won’t make it through.”

Sunday’s match at Stade de Marseille kicks off at 21h00 and will be broadcast live on SuperSport.

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Springboks — 15 Willie le Roux, 14 Grant Williams, 13 Canan Moodie, 12 Andre Esterhuizen, 11 Makazole Mapimpi, 10 Handre Pollard, 9 Cobus Reinach, 8 Jasper Wiese, 7 Duane Vermeulen, 6 Siya Kolisi (c), 5 Marvin Orie, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Vincent Koch, 2 Deon Fourie, 1 Ox Nche.
Subs: 16 Marco van Staden, 17 Steven Kitshoff, 18 Trevor Nyakane, 19 Franco Mostert, 20 Kwagga Smith, 21 Jaden Hendrikse, 22 Jesse Kriel, 23 Manie Libbok.

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RUGBY WORLD CUP POOL B TABLE