Nienaber pledges better goal-kicking from Willemse and co: 'Taking it incredibly seriously'

Despite knowing at the back of their minds that once Handre Pollard or Elton Jantjies return they won't be saddled with the responsibility anymore, Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber insists that Damian Willemse and Co are taking their current goal-kicking duties "incredibly seriously".

The issue has dominated the build-up to Saturday night's crunch meeting with France in Marseille after the waywardness of Willemse and Cheslin Kolbe off the kicking tee arguably cost them a win in last weekend's 19-16 loss to Ireland.

In response to that, the Boks included Stormers pivot Manie Libbok in the match-23 for a potential debut, but only from the bench, meaning that Willemse will have to set the tone.

And while it's largely a forced gamble, Nienaber doesn't believe putting Willemse in that position is necessarily a bad thing.  

READ | Boks weirdly blasé about placekicking ... and weekend results showed it

"It's a different thing to go and kick with a Springbok emblem on your chest and 85 000 people screaming. It's a different kind of pressure," said the national coach on Tuesday.

"The only way they'll get better to handle that pressure is to play under that kind of pressure.

"I don't want to call Damian our third choice because although we know he's only playing his fourth Test at No 10, we know the quality of the player. He might have 25 Tests under his belt, but it's only the fourth time he's had to take the goal-kicking duties because we had the other guys present.

"In 2018, we started with Handre and Elton, who started the majority of our Test matches. Our backup 10 had to be a seasoned international player in Frans Steyn. Unfortunately, we are where we are in that all three aren't available."

Even if a training session can't replicate