- Deon Fourie as starting hooker and Handre Pollard at No 10 should be key Bok selections against Tonga.
- Bongi Mbonambi must ideally be cocooned from this date (or play a fleeting role at best) for bigger-picture purposes.
- The Bok brains trust would earn enthusiastic nods from many supporters if they re-engaged the Esterhuizen-Moodie midfield.
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Beaten but unbowed after their desperately tense loss to world top-ranked Ireland, the Springboks just need to keep cool heads for safe advance to the quarterfinals of RWC 2023 … and a mountingly likely meeting with France.
While even a basic victory should ultimately prove to do the trick, a bonus-point triumph over Tonga in Marseille this Sunday (21:00 SA time) would guarantee the defending champions' presence in the last eight.
Yet the pressure to win it means the Boks cannot be too complacent either in motivation level, execution of their skills or selection against the Pacific Islanders.
Tonga, for all their bruising threat physically, have not yet really sparked meaningfully at the tournament, showing respective dumpings from both Ireland (59-16) and Scotland (45-17).
The Bok masterminds are required to weigh up several factors in assembling their lineup for this one.
READ |Manie stays magical in Rassie's eyes as Pollard's playing return looms
One is that - in what might be termed both a blessing and curse - they will have a two-week gap to the quarter-final should they get the job safely done against Tonga, meaning the risk of some senior personnel going a little stale if not given a gallop in the last pool game.
A different perspective is that the Boks could also opt not to risk a couple of their "spinal" players in what should be a limb-clattering date with the underdogs.
For example, their lone remaining proven specialist hooker, Bongi Mbonambi, is absolutely vital to their knockout-phase plans and it would be disastrous if he went down injured against Tonga.
At best, it seems wise to have him curtailed to only 20 minutes, say, as a substitute - and that's if his presence on the park even becomes necessary - this weekend.
As much as anything else, South Africa need to give versatile Deon Fourie vital additional gametime at No 2 against the Tongans to help sharpen his re-acclimatisation to the important role now that he is Mbonambi's main backup.
In broader terms, the Boks may take their cue partially in selection theme from the eventful RWC 2007 meeting against the same opponents, also on French soil.
Later to become champions, SA began the match in Lens with a considerably "dirt-tracker" look to their starting XV.
Tonga threw the kitchen sink in the unexpectedly ding-dong affair and Jake White urgently summoned on senior figures from the splinters like frontline captain John Smit, Victor Matfield, Juan Smith, Bryan Habana and Percy Montgomery during the second half to close the deal 30-25 in a heartstopper.
As Matfield himself observed in SuperSport studio punditry after the narrow Ireland defeat on Saturday, it is less easy these days to identify a clearcut Bok first team, given the truly squad-based ethic that runs quite pleasingly through the camp.
So the selection answer against Tonga this time may well lie in having plentiful stalwarts on the bench, while fielding a "halfway house" kind of starting outfit, still with abundant steeliness to it on paper.
While shielding Mbonambi as far as possible should be a key thought for management, the opposite applies to someone like very recent squad returnee Handre Pollard … suddenly under a more urgent spotlight given the (decisive?) frailties in Bok placekicking against the Irish.
Not only should he start at pivot against Tonga to get him up to match-sharpness speed for more pressing dates to come, but maybe also get some exposure later in the game to the inside-centre berth.
That is because it is far from a foregone conclusion that, for big clashes, Manie Libbok now deserves the boot from flyhalf: his inventive general play cannot summarily be stripped from the present Bok battleplan.
READ | Handre Pollard is 'no Superman', warns Rassie as pivot set to answer goalkicking crisis
Nienaber and allies would earn a widespread tick of public approval, too, if they opted for the upcoming match to restore the budding secondary midfield alliance of Andre Esterhuizen (tailor-made for a Tonga tussle) and Canan Moodie.
While Damian de Allende and Jesse Kriel were typically solid and durable against Ireland, there's a lingering perception that the Boks lack some subtlety and surprise elements when they are the main centre pairing.
It may well differ vastly from final choice by the unpredictable "Rasnaber" strategic combo, but here's roughly how I would construct the Bok team against Tonga:
15 Damian Willemse, 14 Cheslin Kolbe/Kurt-Lee Arendse, 13 Canan Moodie, 12 Andre Esterhuizen, 11 Makazole Mapimpi, 10 Handre Pollard, 9 Grant Williams/Jaden Hendrikse, 8 Duane Vermeulen, 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 6 Kwagga Smith/Marco van Staden, 5 RG Snyman, 4 Eben Etzebeth/Jean Kleyn, 3 Vincent Koch/Trevor Nyakane, 2 Deon Fourie, 1 Ox Nche
*My Bomb Squad for the fixture would vitally include experienced campaigners like Siya Kolisi, Mbonambi, Steven Kitshoff, Faf de Klerk and Willie le Roux ... just in case of difficulties at an advanced stage.
