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2023 Rugby World Cup
Pool B
South Africa v Ireland
Stade de France
Paris, France
Saturday, 23 September 2023
Kick-off is at 21h00
South Africa and Ireland will battle it out for top spot in Pool B when they lock horns at the Stade de France in the
2023 Rugby World Cup on Saturday, September 23.
The Springboks have made a winning start to their title defence in France, seeing off Scotland 18-3 on September 10 before destroying Romania 76-0 seven days later.
Boks head coach Jacques Nienaber has rung the changes once more, with Damian Willemse and Bongi Mbonambi the only two players retained from the starting line-up against the Oaks.
Manie Libbok, who converted just two of his four penalties in the win over the Scots, returns at fly-half as Willemse switches to full-back again where he featured in the first match.
Eben Etzebeth is also back in the team after missing the Romania game with a shoulder issue, which forced him off against Scotland after just 26 minutes.
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Cobus Reinach has to make do with a spot on the bench despite scoring a hat-trick of tries last time out as Nienaber selected a seven-one split bench, leaving out Duane Vermeulen and Willie le Roux completely.
"We believe that is the team that will front up to all the challenges of Ireland will present to us on Saturday," he said. "Not many people would have raised an eyebrow if we went with Willie [le Roux] instead of Gazza [Damian Willemse].
"We know it will take a group effort from the 33 players here. The environment within the squad is such that everybody is happy for the guys that got selected.
"That is the beauty of where our squad is currently. If we are successful, everybody will drink out of the Webb Ellis Cup."
Ireland head coach Andy Farrell has a full compliment to choose from after prop Finlay Bealham was given the all-clear to face the world champions.
Bealham lasted just nine minutes against Tonga on September 16 after coming on as a half-time replacement for Tadhg Furlong before sustaining a head injury.
All 33 players trained on Tuesday, September 19 as Jack Conan and Dan Sheehan also took part in the session to hand Farrell a timely boost.
The world's top-ranked team opened their World Cup campaign with a dominant 82-8 victory over Romania and top Pool B after triumphing 59-16 over the Sea Eagles.
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Farrell is relishing the clash against the Springboks and believes Ireland will be up to the challenge as they look to seal a place in the quarter-finals.
"I would hope we will be better because we'll certainly need to be when it gets to playing against a fantastic side in South Africa," he said.
"But, two games under the belt is good for us. I felt for Tonga a little bit in the sense that they didn't get to play last week and I think once you've got your first game out of the way you find your rhythm better. It certainly looked like that from our point of view.
"Hopefully that rolls onto to another level on the third week because, I mean, this is what World Cups are all about, weeks that are coming against the reigning world champions.
"It doesn't get any better and one thing's for sure, you know that the Irish are going to turn up and enjoy it as well. So it's a fantastic week to look forward to."
Head-to-Head:
Matches - 27
South Africa - 18
Ireland - 8
Draws - 1
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