VIDEO: No room for 'entitled' players in this Bok team

Jacques Nienaber and his fellow selectors are backing players who believe in the system, work hard and ‘don’t become entitled’.

This was the message of the South African coach, ahead of their World Cup semifinal face-off with England at Stade de France in Paris on Saturday.

Nienaber on Thursday named the most experienced in Springbok team history – with a combined total of 895 caps – with 15 of the 23 having played against England in the 32-12 victory in the World Cup Final four years ago in Japan.

In a statement issued with the team announcement, Nienaber also revealed that it is also only the second time that he (and Director of Rugby, Rassie Erasmus) named an identical line-up in 64 Tests since they took charge of the team in 2018.

The only other occasion was in the opening match of the 2019 tournament, which was lost 13-23 to New Zealand.

Addressing the media in the Salle Jeanne d’Arc (Joan of Arc) meeting room in the quaint commune of Presles in the Val-d’Oise district in northern France, Nienaber responded to a question about how many of the current squad was already pencilled in 12 months ago.

His initial answer of 66 percent was not that startling.

However, his use of the word ‘entitled’ as a reason for players possibly not making the selection cut – and he used the word twice – begged the question: ‘Was there anybody who missed out because they were entitled?’

“If you asked us at the start of 2022 what our 33 [World Cup squad] would look like, we would have been certain about 66 percent of the squad,” Nienaber told a media briefing, after naming an unchanged matchday 23 for the first time this year.

“However, the one consistent was – nand the players knew this – they had to perform well.

“Your road map [performance indicator] must show that you are working and getting better at your fundamentals.”

He said they were looking at the form and performance of a group of 51 players – with injuries the one factor that could impact on that selection model.

“If everybody performed, they didn’t become entitled, kept on working we were certain about two-thirds of the squad,” Nienaber said.

“If they didn’t become entitled, if they kept on working hard, if they kept on buying into what we were trying to do, if they kept on sacrificing we knew the character of the players we thought would make the cut.”

Asked by @rugby365com to clarify his use of the word ‘entitled’ and asked if there were any players (or a player) not t the World Cup because they became entitled, Nienaber became very evasive.

(WATCH as Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber explains why there is no room for ‘entitled’ players in his team…)

While he never answered the question if someone had missed out on World Cup selection because he had become entitled, he also did not deny it.

“We all become entitled,” the coach said, adding: “It is just how long do you stay entitled.

“I will take myself for example.

“That is why I am not on social media, because you start believing what people are saying about you.

“You want to believe the good things and then you become entitled in your mind.

“You start believing what people say about you.

“You must always stay in the reality.

“Everybody here, at some stage in their life, became entitled.

“The question is, how long do you stay there?

“When you become entitled, you expect things. You no longer work for it. It must come your way, because you are who you are.”

@king365ed
@rugby365com