Pragmatism over romanticism as Arendse heroics fail to prevent Boks going for tried and tested

The Springbok coaches have been accused of taking out the romance of the unexpected in sport with their attention to detail in the past, and few decisions underline that more than the non-selection of winger Kurt-Lee Arendse for Saturday’s Rugby Championship match against New Zealand.

Thanks to scoring a hat-trick in South Africa’s dominant 43-12 win in their tournament opener against Australia last weekend, the former Blitzboks star was assumed to have been one of the few players who had not been part of the advance party to New Zealand who had earned a start against the All Blacks.

But when Springbok head coach Jacques Nienaber announced his squad for the Mt Smart Stadium clash Arendse, whose hat-trick pushed his tally of international tries to 10 from eight appearances, was nowhere to be found in the match day 23, with World Cup final starters Makazole Mapimpi and Cheslin Kolbe preferred.

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It’s a decision that not only went a long way towards emphasising the fact that the Bok team to play the All Blacks was selected some time ago, the Bok coaches also went the horses for courses route by picking players who have done a job for them against the All Blacks before.

Nienaber confirmed during his press conference from Auckland that the team that will run out against New Zealand was telegraphed to the wider Bok squad. 

"We were open with the players so they pretty much had a good idea of who would play in the [first two] test matches,” Nienaber explained.

"We were pretty honest with them from the start, but the New Zealand side was also selected because of form and injuries to players. 

"I'm not going to get into which players played themselves