South Africa head coach Jacques Nienaber says that he “hopes” Ireland and Scotland will not resort to match-fixing in their final Pool B match this weekend.
The Springboks have played all their group games and currently reside at the summit on 15 points following their victory over Tonga on Sunday.
That 49-18 triumph over ‘Ikale Tahi in the Rugby World Cup took them above Ireland in the standings, with the Scots a place further back
How the Boks can miss out
It will likely be a straight shootout between those two Six Nations outfits for who qualifies alongside South Africa, but there is a scenario where the Boks miss out.
Should Scotland beat Andy Farrell’s men with a try bonus-point and with enough of a gap to overturn the Springboks’ points difference, that would take them through as group winners.
But if the Irishmen also take home a try bonus-point, that would also put them on 15 points and they would finish above Nienaber’s charges due to their 13-8 victory in Paris.
“I think between ourselves, Ireland and Scotland, everybody can still miss out on the quarter-finals, every single team, all three of those teams, but all three can also still make it so the pool will only be decided on Saturday,” the head coach said.
“Could I believe in a scenario that they will decide ‘do we want to get this amount of points and then get South Africa out of the way?’ That would probably be match-fixing, I would say. I hope not.
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