Boks end intrigue and confusion: Pollard and co officially out of RWC, unless injuries strike

Handre Pollard, Lukhanyo Am and Lood de Jager's respective dreams of playing in this year's World Cup are officially and unequivocally over, as things stand.

Springbok head coach Jacques Nienaber on Monday confirmed that the 33-man squad announced two weeks ago in Randburg has been submitted to Word Rugby, meaning no alterations can now be made unless there are injuries.

The team's build-up towards this past weekend's emphatic 52-16 victory over Wales had been overshadowed to an extent by speculation that Pollard, South Africa's first-choice flyhalf, could somehow still slip in via the proverbial back-door by featuring in Friday's showdown against the All Blacks at Twickenham.

However, once it became clear that the 29-year-old pivot - who's been out for the past few months with a calf injury - still required at least another week of full-on training to be considered for selection, Bok team management decided to draw a line under any lingering uncertainty by completing the paperwork a week earlier.

News24 previously received confirmation from World Rugby that all final squads must be submitted by August 28.

"Handre's on the edge of being fully fit. He's not in a return-to-train protocol anymore, he's in the return-to-play cycle," said Nienaber.

"Lukhanyo is in the former, which means he's not even training at the moment. With Handre, he's on his way back to playing competitively, probably a week away from being declared to fit to play. [The complication is] he obviously would need to find some match fitness."

Asked for final clarification on their selection status, the Bok mentor was emphatic. 

15 Damian Willemse, 14 Kurt-Lee Arendse, 13 Canan Moodie, 12 Andre Esterhuizen, 11 Makazole Mapimpi, 10 Manie Libbok, 9 Faf de Klerk, 8