Bok team to play Tonga

15. Willie

14. Williams

13. Moodie

12. Esterhuizen

11. Mapimpi

10. Pollard

9. Reinach

1. Ox

2. Fourie

3. Koch

4. Etzebeth

5. Orie

6. Kolisi

7. Vermeulen

8. Wiese

16. v Staaden 17. Kitshoff 18. Nyakane 19. Mostert 20. Kwagga 21. Hendrikse 22. Libbok 23. Kriel

No sure why they are not resting Eben and Kolisi

They have I think 13 days before their next match after Tonga. So no need to rest anybody. But I like the fact he did rest some players. 

Rassie obviously thinks Fourie and Van Staden can do the hookers job. Good test to see.

Unless there are niggles or whatever I would have liked to see Snyman on the bench or even Kleyn.

Pollard had to start. Libbok is there in case of breakdown.

Willemse, Malherbe and Du Toit get well earned rests.

Interesting to see Williams on the wing. Brilliant speed. Looking forward to seeing him playing outside the creative Moodie. Mpimpi combines very well with Willie.

Boks must win and score 4 tries to earn the 5 points. 

What is Rassie doing? 

All other countries are starting their best teams in nearly all of the games so they can peak as the tournament goes on.

Also, the Boks have almost 2 weeks until a quarter-final game -so surely a first-choice team should be starting. 

The Boks have fielded a B-team in nearly all of the games, and in many cases, it is not even clear who is a B-team or A-team.

This just proves how useless the squad is. Williams is playing wing yet again. Against some very big South Sea Islanders. Our small wingers have a real hard time against them normally.

Then, I completely forgot about the useless Orie. Another player we didn't need to select. I see no Willemse. Duanne is shifting to 7? 

The more I like at these random selections and players playing out of position the more frustrated I get with this team. 

Fourie, over the top flanker. 

Orie, wow, what is he doing there

Vermeulen, average, not sure he has the stamina. 

Wiese, dumb power 

Will be his 3rd time that he plays at 13 in his entire professional career

Williams, wing again. He is quick but can he defend a big south sea islander 

The we have Van Staden at Hooker. I would have started with him to really test him 

A red card and this team could be a bit of a problem

Sad to see Esterhozen playing in the B team again…..this guy must be incredibly frustrated.

...and it doesn't matter if AE scores 10 tries, he will not start against France.

What a terrible feeling that must be. It doesn't matter how well you play bud, you will never be the 1st choice 12.

Esterhozen’s break against the All Blacks was the best bit of centre play we have seen from the Boks this season. Like the Aki break past Dud Allende it actually changed momentum in the game,

It’s just unfortunate that great AE break lead to nothing and he did nothing against the shit Romanian side

I like AE don’t get me wrong but he has done nothing to merit kicking our impressive incumbent out of his starting spot

AE has had one bad game this season. The backline runs better with him in it.
Delande is good at what he does, but he is very individualistic. 

klop

Well, also noted no Willemse on the bench. They must be resting him. 

What I have see of Willie is that he is off the pace and lacks that extra speed. Yes, he lobs some scoring passes but he also gets caught. 

We do miss an inform Am, not sure what the status on him is and probably too late to bring him in against France. 

That said, I would not take my eye off this Tongan team. We got caught out against Japan. 

Just Wish RasNiebar would create proper competition in the team. 

Well, we are here because of their dumb planning and arrogance. We should have won that game against Ireland. We lost all our scrum dominance when Fourie came on. Not a scrumming hooker. 

Also, when you throw a skew throw 1 out 4, it is still not good enough because it counts. 

If this WC goes pear shaped for us, there will be a massive amount of Questions directed at Rassie ….especially his selections and the massive lack of player depth…Let’s see how his “ Genius “ status stands later on in the Tournament : )

Yes, I hope Rassie proves me wrong, but the planning the whole year seems like a total disaster.

The Boks turned up in New Zealand to play a test match, and many of the players had not played a proper game in months. 

Now his squad selections are a complete disaster. 

It is clear the Boks without Malcolm Marx are just not as good. 
An inform Marx and Vermuelen make any pack formiddalbe, but Vermuelen is almost a spend force with just a bit left in the tank

I have seen Vermuelwn play for 80 minutes. He is going pretty well.

I am going Fourie has a good game in the scrums and shows what he can do outside the scrums with his pace.

It would be a boost if Pollard played well and showed be can get the backs going. 

I would like to see Reinach be more assertive.

We have picked a pretty mobile pack and some exciting backs. 

Let's get those 5 points and leave Scotland and Ireland to sweat it out??

Watch out for Tongans, they are very tough men, a small country of only 250000 but includes such greats as Jonah Lomu...very proud, yet limited in manpower.

But a spanner in the works, SA players, they throw velocity at you physically to try curtail your ego...they know they cannot win but try to upset the program to favour the AB's.

Nice people, I like them, always wanted to visit Tonga, the "Friendly Islands".

Marx is not a core Bok. Given the span of time, his career has been quite unfortunate. He was the best hooker in the world in 2016, then played a solid 2017, and then never recovered throughout the Erasmus years. I would now say that his best years have been lost under this sham of a coach. As we have seen the last couple of years, he is not even a shadow of himself. Perhaps one of the first of many players to regress under Erasmus; Pollard being the other. Thor hasn't been good this year either. He was praised for things, but none of these things have been found in any video review. 

The Scots thumped Tonga we will do the same

Then it’s QF time

We could really do with Marx by far the best hooker in the game and Am the most intelligent and best 13 in the game

We are sorely missing Lood as well as without him we see useless Mostert starting with RG wasted on the bench - a travesty

The reason for a 5-3 split

South Africa went for a 7-1 split on the bench against Ireland but they have gone to a 5-3 for Sunday’s encounter, with Manie Libbok in reserve should Pollard go down with cramp.

“If you look at Handre, he hasn’t played top-level club rugby since the first weekend in May,” Nienaber told reporters: “It’s about 19 weeks ago and in that 19 weeks, he’s only played 30 minutes and that was in the Premiership Cup [for Leicester Tigers against Sale Sharks] a fortnight ago.

“There’s a good possibility that he probably would struggle to get through an intense game, a good probability that he might cramp up.

“That’s why we went with the 5-3 split and have Manie on the bench just for cover.”

“His club, Leicester Tigers, also made sure he was 100 per cent fit before playing him and then he only played one half,” the coach said.

“They ensured he recovered enough to take the full load of a week’s training and then play in a game.

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That does not explain why Jessica Kriel is on the bench...unless this is Kriel's retirement game...

This is the last test at the world cup for a few players:
Hendrikse will not make the bench again. 
Grant Williams has falled out of favour - mostly due to wild passes. 
Mapimpi is also playing his last test of the tournament
Orrie is on th next bus home after this test. 

Lomp is useless….the man (along with Dud Allende) whose weak defense took us out of WC 2015.

If a player gets injured in the Tonga test, I wonder if the Boks would call up a hooker. 
Dweeb(a) has not played very well at test rugby, but he has not had much time. His lineout throws were poor when he did play. 

I wonder if the Boks would call up a hooker. 
Dweeb(a) has not played very well at test rugby, but he has not had much time

Rassie might have pinged that Dweeba is no better than part time hookers Fourie and Van Staden