Nienaber clears air on Bok squad conspiracies: 'The whole 33 will go and come back'

Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber cleared the air regarding any swirling conspiracies about the composition of his squad, saying his entire 33-man World Cup squad is in more than fine fettle to put their best foot forward for next month's tournament.

The Springboks depart for the United Kingdom on Saturday where their warm-up game trail ahead of the World Cup will see them play Wales in Cardiff on 19 August before facing the All Blacks on 25 August in London.

Nienaber's 33-man group contains four scrumhalves and, crucially, two players in the travelling standby group in Handre Pollard and Lukhanyo Am, who are at various stages of recovery from calf and knee injuries respectively.

Nienaber said Pollard, who hasn't played a Test for the Boks since August last year against Australia in Adelaide, is fit, but at 20 to 25 percent of where he needs to be from a match-readiness perspective.

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"There are a lot of rumours flying around about the squad, about this plot that we're going to take four scrum-halves and we're going to put Handre in," Nienaber said.

"I think one must start explaining by first saying that, if there are no injuries, the whole 33 will go and come back.

"The thing about Handre is that he's not injured now, and he trained with us for two sessions, but he's still on his way back from a fitness perspective.

"We've got six years of data on our players in terms of what it takes to get them ready to give us an opportunity to win a game on Saturday.

"There are particular metrics to judge that and Handre is at about 20 to 25 percent of the loads, having done an attack and defence session.

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