Nienaber insists ‘Springboks can still win World Cup’

The Springboks slumped to an agonising five-point defeat against Ireland at the Stade de France, with the result now placing them on a quarter-final collision course with hosts France.

The 13-8 loss ended the Springboks’ eight-match winning streak at World Cups and saw Ireland extend their stranglehold on this fixture to three wins from the last three games against South Africa.

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DEFIANT SPRINGBOKS CONFIDENT THEY CAN DEFEND THE TITLE

In 2019, the Springboks became to the first-ever side to be crowned World Cup champions after losing a pool game, having gone down in their tournament opener against the All Blacks.

Now, four years later, Nienaber is adamant that his Springboks can repeat that feat after they lost their Pool B encounter against Ireland in Paris on Saturday night.

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Jacques Nienaber took a defiant stance in the post-match press conference when he confidently claimed the defending champion Springboks could still win the World Cup.

“In 2019, did you think we could win?” Springboks boss said at the post-match press conference at the Stade de France when the question was posed to him.

“We are in this competition to win. Everyone is here to win. We played against the number-one team in the world, and we lost by five points.

“We had a chance in 79th minute to win, but we didn’t take it. The bottom line is Ireland were better, but the margin is very small.

“We must work at things that didn’t work, and if we can fix them and have a bit of luck, we can win the World Cup.”

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WATCH: SIYA KOLISI AND JACQUES NIENABER TALK AFTER THE GAME

This is gold pic.twitter.com/ByrHDymChL

— Rugby Bits (@RugbyBits) September 24, 2023