Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus just reveal that he will not back down on plans to make several team changes for this Saturday’s Test against Australia in Perth due to….
Springboks: Expect big changes for second Test
The Springboks travelled to Perth on Sunday to begin on-field preparations for this Saturday’s next Test, which follows on from a resounding 33-7 victory over the Wallabies in their Rugby Championship opener.
Immediately after that game, Erasmus suggested they will be looking to give a few other players a run this weekend, and it’s clear that he will stick with the plan of make team changes despite the old adage of ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’.
The public team announcement will take place on Tuesday around 12:45pm (SA time), and assistant coach Duane Vermeulen explained how they wanted to share game-time with the rest of the squad.
“We have a squad of 33 players and you want to use all 33,” Vermeulen said. “You need the guys to stay and form and perform when there is an injury. They need to have game time.”
Seating alongside Vermeulen was one-cap prop Jan-Hendrik Wessels and World Cup-winning wing Makazole Mapimpi, who are both set to form part of a new-look matchday 23.
“You see these two guys [Wessels and Mapimpi] here, and they might be in the mix,” Vermeulen commented. “You need game time and you need experience.
SPRINGBOKS ON THE CHARGE
WORLD RANKINGS:
| Rank | Country | Points |
| 1 | South Africa | 93.11 |
| 2 | Ireland | 92.12 |
| 3 | New Zealand | 88.37 |
| 4 | France | 86.96 |
| 5 | England | 85.40 |
| 6 | Argentina | 83.64 |
| 7 | Scotland | 82.82 |
| 8 | Italy | 79.98 |
| 9 | Australia | 78.96 |
| 10 | Fiji | 77.44 |
| 11 | Wales | 76.04 |
| 12 | Georgia | 74.10 |
| 13 | Samoa | 73.65 |
| 14 | Japan | 71.63 |
| 15 | Portugal | 70.61 |
| 16 | Tonga | 68.66 |
| 17 | Uruguay | 67.39 |
| 18 | Spain | 66.29 |
| 19 | USA | 66.01 |
| 20 | Romania | 62.62 |
The 33-7 victory over the Wallabies was South Africa’s first in Brisbane since 2013, and only their second over the hosts in the city since the dawn of the professional age almost 30 years ago.
When Vermeulen was quizzed about whether another good performance could place the Boks in pole position to win the Rugby Championship for the first time since 2019, especially after New Zealand suffered a surprise defeat to Argentina in the opening round, he kept his cards close to his chest.
“It’s still early days,” he said. “New Zealand also selected a few young players compared to the side they played in the RWC, so they’ll probably make some changes this week. From our perspective, obviously the last game put us in a good position (to compete for the title), but there’s still a long way to go.”
The former Bok loose forward was delighted to be part of the Springbok management team, where he is currently deployed after working the Junior Springboks earlier in the year, and said he cherished every moment of the opportunity.
“It’s been an easy transition (from a player to management member) because I only played a year ago,” said Vermeulen. “It’s nice to still be in the mix. I’ve been learning from the coaches because they see things from a different angle, so I’ve really been enjoying this journey.”
After playing a key role as a waterboy in the last few Tests, Vermeulen added: “There’s a lot more to being a waterboy than simply carrying water. There’s a lot of comm
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Veteran Wallaby says players, not tactics to blame for Springboks thrashing, he mention who to blame
James Slipper says the playing group must put their hand up for their first-up horror show against the Springboks, but the veteran Wallaby believes there’s an opportunity to respond against the back-to-back world champions in Perth this weekend.
The Wallabies returned to the training paddock on Monday after travelling to Perth on Sunday afternoon for Saturday’s rematch.
But before they hit the field, the Wallabies broke up into groups to run their eyes over their equal-record home loss to the Springboks in front of 52,019 fans last Saturday.
While the Springboks always represented a huge step up from their European opposition in July, Joe Schmidt’s side didn’t help themselves as they kicked possession away early, mucked up their attacking breakdown and gave away penalties at the set-piece.
The missed opportunities allowed the Springboks to get on the front foot – and Rassie Erasmus’ men didn’t miss as they opened up a 21-0 lead at half-time, before switching off in the final 15 minutes due to a series of clumsy penalties.
But after three wins in July, the heavy defeat was a reality check for the Wallabies that they still have a long way to go after being left to pick up the pieces following last year’s World Cup disaster.
“I’d say it [was] a pretty disappointing review from the players’ behalf,” Slipper said.
“We look at the game plan itself and it was probably not executed well enough by the players going into the game.
“We created a lot of opportunities where we didn’t actually take them. On top of that, the South Africans are that good that when you don’t take any opportunities, you give them the ball and they’re a powerful team, they’re going to get points at some stage of the game.
“We missed the jump there in the first half and we were under a lot of pressure going into half-time.
“We still got a fair bit to look at throughout the game. My belief is we had the game plan there, we just probably didn’t execute as well as we’d like.”
In particular, the Wallabies’ halves failed to take advantage of the bit of territory they had during the opening 30 minutes as halfback Jake Gordon kicked the ball away twice, while Noah Lolesio also put up a poor up-and-under where the Springboks punished the home side’s broken line.
Although Slipper admitted the execution wasn’t great, he added that the Wallabies’ struggles went beyond the inaccurate kicking game.
“The game plan was set, just the accuracy around delivering that game plan wasn’t great,” he said.
“We don’t want to see kicks uncontested. We want to see them hit grass and it’s not just the kicking, it was the set piece as well. It was the way we were tackling. Our inability to win the collision at times really hurt us as well.
“Kicking aside, there’s plenty of areas to the game that we weren’t just accurate in delivering.
“What we know is if we get certain areas of the game right, we can create a lot of opportunities and we’ve seen that in the review. But we know we’re going to have to be good this week.
“It’s a fine margin in Test rugby where [if] you’re not as accurate as you want to be, you get punished – and that’s what happened to us on the weekend. Everyone sitting at home probably saw that as well.”
While the Wallabies haven’t been helped by a series of injuries and Taniela Tupou’s absence, Schmidt’s side only have to look across the ditch to draw some confidence after Felipe Contepomi’s Los Pumas delivered the upset of the year by knocking over the All Blacks in New Zealand.
“One thing in rugby is one week’s performance can easily be turned around,” Slipper said.
Although the Wallabies’ physicality was nowhere near where it needs to be, Schmidt’s side know they won’t get close to turning around the 26-point loss without greater accuracy.
Wallabies newcomer Carlo Tizzano is one of those players who found out how tough the fine margins are in Test rugby.
The hard onballer was pinged for going off his feet at the breakdown in the first half as he tried to keep the Springboks at bay after Lolesio was smashed in contact near the 22-metre line.
It was one of several examples Schmidt will have highlighted about the balance needed to be struck between pace, physicality, and composure.
Despite the heavy loss, Tizzano said it was a positive the Wallabies found out where they are so early in the international season.
“I really loved that I got thrown straight in the deep end against the best in the world,” he said.
“I think that’s an awesome way to test how all the hard work you’ve been putting in over all these years since you were a kid [and] see where you can put yourself.
“After the weekend, it was bittersweet. I was absolutely gutted because winning is everything, so to lose in front of that massive home crowd was a tough one. In the sheds, we were pretty upset about that.
“To be able to put forward a good performance we can really be proud of at Optus Stadium, especially for me in front of the Perth local fans, that’ll be something I’ll remember forever.”
