Deep lungs: Key explainer for Springbok selection continuity

• Widespread confidence in fitness/stamina ought to have helped Jacques Nienaber in sticking to the same Bok match-day composition.
• Going back a year or more, the Springboks have mostly shown pleasing hallmarks of a "full 80 minutes" outfit.
• A player like Jesse Kriel wore visible scars of honour after the RWC quarter-final win ... but he has a renowned conditioning ethic.
• For more news, visit our Rugby World Cup Zone.

It is doubtful that Springbok head coach Jacques Nienaber would have picked a rare, identical match-day 23 for Saturday's World Cup semi-final against England in Paris (21:00 SA time) if he had any fears at all over relevant individual players' remaining "lungs and legs" capacities at the tournament.

The depth of this broader Bok squad is quite likely unrivalled in France, remember.

It was put to liberal use in the pool phase - so yes, the temptation to freshen up in certain positions without compromising noticeably on standards or systems would have flickered invitingly in front of the brains trust.

But by going unaltered, despite the unusually strenuous effort and courage required in repelling hosts Les Bleus in last weekend's quarter-final heartstopper, the current Boks have also stuck entirely to recent RWC script by them.

They have now reached the semis of three consecutive World Cups, including going on to emerge from the 2019 tournament as champions.

Want to know the sum of voluntary selection changes (including bench) between the SA teams of 2015, 2019 and 2023, when transitioning from quarters to semis each time?

The answer is zero: the whole period is marked by just two Bok match-day tweaks between the last eight and last four of the event, but both forced by injuries.

Eight years ago, as the Heyneke Meyer era neared its finish, the national side saw off Wales 23-19 in a Twickenham quarter-final, a typically tense and attritional knockout scrap.

But the then-mastermind still only made one change to the 23 for the semi against an All Blacks team (who edged it 20-18) at the peak of their powers: he brought back most-capped Springbok lineout maestro Victor Matfield for impact purposes.

The veteran Matfield had been wrestling a niggling hamstring complaint for much of the tournament, but came onto the splinters for Pieter-Steph du Toit in the only adjustment.

In memorable 2019, Cheslin Kolbe, already wowing the planet with his electric and elusive qualities, picked up an inconvenient ankle injury between the quarters (SA comfortably beat Japan 26-3) and the semi against Wales (19-16).

Mindful that they wanted him fit again for the final - Kolbe famously, influentially recovered in time - Rassie Erasmus sat him out of the last-four fixture, temporarily introducing S'bu Nkosi at No 14 in the lone tweak to the 23 from the personnel who had repelled the Brave Blossoms.

So there is a certain sense of equilibrium and hopefully good omens, if you are Bok-partial, to the latest decision to stick fully to the personnel who heroically ground out the victory over the French as these Boks press onward to try to become first-time (for them) retainers of the Webb Ellis Cup.

But there is an extra reason, arguably, why Nienaber and company felt emboldened to say "same again, chaps" for Saturday.

It has to do with the firm squad-wide evidence, pretty much throughout the 2023 Test season and a bit before it, that conditioning is a strongpoint of this Bok vintage.

Last Sunday will have taken some sort of toll on the players involved, that is almost undeniable: but the way the Boks so remarkably produced their (hitherto elusive) "heat" and territorial traction/control in the critical final quarter of the match against the French is a tribute to their collective staying power.

It came despite, for example, the lopsided tackle count which, up to around the hour mark, indicated that the Cup-holders had made nearly double the tally Les Bleus did.

That is enough reason to suggest, by logical extension, that recovery by the Bok players involved in the epic win should be relatively swift during the lead-up to the semi-final.

Throughout the tournament, Nienaber's charges have shown a penchant for admirable endurance in specific matches ... including even in the narrow lone reverse to Ireland, where they were hammering away ferociously at the enemy line when the final whistle sounded.

The French team, too, will have harboured fairly painful memories, roughly a year ago, of how the Boks had psychologically "won", if you like, the prior bilateral meeting in Marseille.

Slashed to 14 men for 68 minutes due to the early red-carding of Pieter-Steph du Toit, South Africa were probably the better and more durable outfit despite the major setback for the remainder of the contest, which was eventually surrendered 30-26.

We will only know around 23:00 on Saturday whether going wholly unchanged has been the right brew here by the Boks.

That increasingly illuminating outside centre Jesse Kriel, for example, was a visible case study afterwards - bloodied and battered - of the immense exertion put in by the entire troops to repel France.

Understandably, it led to post-game speculation that the Boks might inject a fresher frame to No 13 for England, with no lack of high-calibre alternative options in Lukhanyo Am and Canan Moodie.

But it is also obvious that Kriel is one of the more devoted gym-goers in the set-up ... and clearly loving every minute of his rebirth as a midfield regular at nearly 30.

Why wouldn't he get suitably up for it, all over again, against the English, one of his country's most longstanding major foes?

Also to consider is that the overall buy-in to the Bok battleplan is such that nobody starting has reason to take significant offence if, for example, hauled off before halftime as Nienaber begins a slow-poison Bomb Squad offensive from the bench.

Someone like loosehead prop Steven Kitshoff is showing signs of strain after a murderous couple of years at all rugby levels. In-form Ox Nche before the break? It's quite possible, and would bring no shame.

South Africa only made their first intended impact changes in the 45th minute against France.

That mark may happen just a little earlier, if need be, against England ... one way of guarding against the perils of accumulated tournament fatigue by specific elements of a presently thriving mix.