New Zealand and South Africa will both be bidding to become the first men’s team to win four World Cups when they meet in Saturday’s (Oct. 28) final in Paris.
Head coach Jacques Nienaber has made two changes from the team that beat England by a single point in the semi-final – Faf de Klerk comes in at scrum half while Handrie Pollard takes the fly half shirt.
Nienaber has opted for a 7-1 split of forwards and backs among the replacements, in the hope that they can beat the All Blacks in the forwards battle.
In their campaign for a fourth Webb Ellis Trophy, the Springboks have had their ups and downs.
‘You can never under-estimate them,’ was assistant South Africa coach Mzwandile Stick’s assessment of the challenge of meeting the All Blacks in the World Cup final.
“I know before the tournament that nobody thought it would be the All Blacks and the Springboks, especially also losing that first game, the assistant coach said.
“The All Blacks had lost a game, we lost to Ireland and everyone thought ok Ireland probably have a good chance to be in the final and France. But the way we fought in the past two games, you could just see that it wasn’t only about the game, it was bigger than the rugby game so hopefully tomorrow we’ll keep on fighting and hopefully tomorrow we’ll make our country proud and we know how tough it is back at home sometimes with all the challenges but we’ll just make sure that we give our people back at home some light.”
The sides last met at in August with South Africa emerging winners.
Both teams have won World Cup on three occasions with New Zealand the only side to ever mount a successful defence.
If New Zealand can beat defending champions South Africa at Stade de France, lock Sam Whitelock would also become the first male player to win the tournament on three occassions, following his back-to-back successes with the ‘All Blacks’ in 2011 and 2015.
The final will kick off on Saturday (Oct. 28) at 9 PM UTC +2.
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