A much-changed Springbok team will be up against a confident Scottish outfit.
Pieter-Steph du Toit and Ruan Nortje are two of just five players to retain their places in the Springbok starting XV for their Nations Championship match against Scotland this weekend. Picture: Anton Geyser/Gallo Images
Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus admitted that the plan was always to make wholesale changes, after only 10 players survived in the match 23 for their Nations Championship second-round clash against Scotland at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday evening.
In all, 13 changes have been made to the side that powered to a 45-21 win over England in their tournament opener at Ellis Park over the weekend, most of them rotational.
It was a bit of a surprise to see so many changes, especially with Scotland expected to be a handful, as they proved by downing Argentina 47-38 in Cordoba last week, but Erasmus explained that this was a decision that had been made irrespective of their opposition’s performance in Argentina.
“It (Scotland’s result against Argentina) didn’t play any role (in the team selection). If we had played Italy first and England second we would have done the same thing.
“This team wasn’t picked for reason’s surrounding Scotland. It was picked for us to make sure that when we go to the World Cup next year we know who can do what, when and how.
“How players will react when they are under pressure and not under pressure. Some combinations were picked with that in mind.
“Scotland played really well (against Argentina) and are obviously a good team. They beat England in the Six Nations, so if you go by those results this weekend’s match will probably be tougher than last weekend’s.”
With captain Siya Kolisi and Eben Etzebeth out with injury, Pieter-Steph du Toit will captain the team again as he did against England, but will shift back to the side of the scrum after he played lock over the past weekend.
Retained players
The other players who keep their place in the starting lineup are lock Ruan Nortje, flank Paul de Villiers and outside centre Jesse Kriel, while Damian Willemse, who played a blinder at fullback against England, switches to inside centre.
“Gazza (Willemse) played very well at 15, but he won’t catch a lot of box kicks at 12. He will have to play a different role for us (against Scotland). We wanted to give him a chance there because we wanted to see (Aphelele) Fassi at 15. I think that was the main reason,” explained Erasmus.
“We also wanted to give Doogz (Damian de Allende) a rest in this game, and we wanted a few senior guys in the backline. Ethan (Hooker) was another we would have liked to possibly give a run at 12 but he wasn’t ready.”
There is a new front row featuring Boan Venter, Johan Grobbelaar and Wilco Louw, a new halfback pairing in Embrose Papier and Handré Pollard, and a new back three in Fassi, flanked by Canan Moodie and Edwill van der Merwe, while Evan Roos comes in at eighthman and Cobus Wiese at lock.
“We are definitely going into this match with a much less experienced team than Scotland. So this will be a nice test for a lot of these guys to see if they can stand up when we get to big games over the next year or two,” said Erasmus.
“We certainly think most of them can do the job for us. We wouldn’t have them here if we didn’t think that.”
