Even though he has been dropped from South Africa’s matchday 23 ahead of their clash with New Zealand on Saturday, Willie le Roux is still a key member of the squad.

The 35-year-old was last in action in the Springboks’ Rugby Championship opener against the Wallabies in Brisbane before head coach Rassie Erasmus made 10 changes to his starting line-up for their second Test against Australia in Perth a week later.

The world champions sealed bonus-point victories in both those matches and Aphelele Fassi shone in the number 15 jersey in Perth.

His fine performance caught the attention of Erasmus, who selected him as the Boks‘ starting full-back for this weekend’s highly anticipated encounter with their arch rivals the All Blacks in Johannesburg.

Le Roux still important to the cause

Despite being omitted from the matchday squad for Saturday’s Ellis Park showdown, Erasmus said 96-cap veteran Le Roux is still an important member in the Springboks set-up and that his experience is helping his younger team-mates.

“Everybody knows, Willie is somebody that I’ve coached a long time. I think I coached him double all the years I coached Jasper (Wiese) in my life. I coached him from the Stormers days,” said the Bok mentor.

“He’s at a time in his career where he accepts what his role is in the team. He helps the guys to understand how big the Test match is, how are we going to handle this, how are you going to read that fly-half, when do you have to cover what space.

“If Gaza (Damian Willemse) comes in, he will be working closely with him, we had Phepsi (Buthelezi) when he came in to live almost with Siya (Kolisi).”

Erasmus said it would be a fitting reward if Le Roux goes on to play 100 Tests for the world champions, although he admitted that he is in the twilight of his career.

“We want to get him to his 100th game, he’s at 94 (sic), and I think he will play another two years (of) rugby, (but) I don’t think he will make another World Cup.”

Erasmus also revealed the reasoning behind opting for Fassi as his first choice full-back and said the 26-year-old excitement machine’s selection is just reward after he worked hard at improving certain aspects of his game.

Fassi’s time to shine

“We’re all waiting for Aphelele to do it now. I’ve seen the words the whole week, last week, ‘do it now, it’s now you. Go show the people what you can do, why you’re here. I haven’t seen the things that you do’,” explained Erasmus.

“But, unfortunately with everything, there’s first really hard grafting involved in a game, before you get to do the beautiful things. So him getting his technique under the high ball, not lifting that leg. He’s got that out of his system.

“Him understanding the wings, organising them, working with Willie a hell of a lot, he’s getting the ropes of that. Small little (things), defence from scrums, how does he control the blind(side) wing and lineouts, and those kind of things. But now I think it is his time to shine.

“It’s not easy to shine against New Zealand. That’s certainly where you know, am I ready yet or not. So, hopefully, it’s right.”