Despite big wins in their last two games, and having made minimal changes to the team over that time, Erasmus says this isn't the Springboks' strongest team.
Despite two monstrous wins, over the All Blacks in Wellington and Argentina in Durban, and going into the final Rugby Championship match against Los Pumas at Twickenham on Saturday with largely the same team, Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus is adamant this isn’t their strongest lineup.
After their tight loss against the All Blacks at Eden Park, Erasmus dropped a number of senior players, and freshened up the side with some exciting young budding stars, and they responded with a record 43-10 win over their biggest foes in Wellington.
They followed that up with a thumping 67-30 win over Argentina over the past weekend, led by a record-breaking performance from flyhalf Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, and the Boks have now made just one change to their starting XV for the match at Twickenham.
Despite the superb efforts of the current crop, when asked if this was close to his strongest team, Erasmus explained that the travel factor and short training week made making more changes difficult, and that this was far from their best outfit.
‘Not our best’
“No, definitely not (our first choice side). We have just two (full) days of training, we only arrived (late) on Sunday, (the guys had Monday off) and we only announced the team last night,” said Erasmus.
“We had a training session today (Tuesday) and another tomorrow (Wednesday) … so this is definitely not our strongest team. We are feeling for a few guys who can’t get an opportunity because it is a very short turnaround.
“We also had to get a few clearances today on players carrying injury niggles and only really confirmed the team about an hour ago after training.”
Ox Nche is the only change to the starting side, after he was a late withdrawal last week due to injury, and Boan Venter drops out of the squad.
On the bench, veterans Bongi Mbonambi and Jesse Kriel return to the mix, along with electrifying scrumhalf Grant Williams.
Players such as Ethan Hooker, Canan Moodie, Damian Willemse and Feinberg-Mngomezulu are enjoying a run in the starting side, but are all in positions with plenty of competition so likely aren’t considered first choice.
Injured players like Aphelele Fassi and Kurt-Lee Arendse would usually be in the mix, Kriel is around, as well as Handré Pollard and Manie Libbok, so it is not known what team Erasmus would consider his strongest.
Very confident
But the current group, after their recent impressive wins, will be very confident of clinching a win over Argentina at Twickenham and sealing back-to-back Rugby Championship titles for the first time in the Boks’ history.
However, Erasmus warned that Los Pumas will come out firing, and that they will have to be at their absolute best to get the win that is needed.
“Last week they were in the running to win the title, and they’ll be determined to make up for that result, so we are expecting them to throw everything at us on Saturday,” said Erasmus.
“They may be out of the title race, but they have beaten the All Blacks, Wallabies, and British & Irish Lions this season, and it would be a big target for them to defeat us as well, so it’s going to be another hard grind.
“They have a powerful pack and hard-running backs, and they showed in the first half last week that if they stick to their structures and play well, they are a huge threat.”
