Springboks: Rassie Erasmus ‘ I will definitely’ make changes after the ‘gamble’ in Argentina fails

Rassie Erasmus will make changes to his matchday 23 for the Springboks’ final Rugby Championship clash against Argentina in Nelspruit.

After falling to a 29-28 defeat to Los Pumas in Santiago del Estero, the Bok head coach has confirmed that he will not change his plans for the final match of the tournament.

Before heading to Argentina for the round five clash, Erasmus opted to leave seven Springboks players in South Africa to rest and recover for the final home Test match of the year.

Willie le Roux, Cheslin Kolbe, Damian de Allende, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Frans Malherbe and Bongi Mbonambi all did not make the trip out to Argentina and with the expectation of Feinberg-Mngomezulu – who is sidelined with a knee injury – they could all feature in the second match against Los Pumas.

Springboks to make changes for Nelspruit clash

Erasmus was asked after the one-point defeat to Argentina if the result would change his plans for the Springboks‘ final home game of the year and his response was emphatic.

“The guys who were rested will definitely come into the mix,” he said.

“It would have been lovely to win this game obviously, we really wanted to win this game but we were taking a bit of a gamble with leaving seven guys at home.”

The Springboks coaching staff’s decision to leave several experienced players at home for the match against Los Pumas in Argentina did not pay off but Erasmus said that it was important for the development of the inexperienced players in the squad.

“The loss is not nice and we feel sad about that but then I don’t want to say lessons learned because that’s an old cliche but for some of the younger guys to experience this stadium, the Argentinian support and the way Argentina loosens up the game in the future maybe next time when they here, they know how it feels,” he explained.

“There were five or six guys who haven’t played here before and they will know next time what we mean when we say it’s brutal when you come here but definitely those guys will come back into the mix like we planned.

“The South African public and media don’t like to say lessons learned, you mustn’t be learning your lessons at Springboks level but obviously, we wanted to win but we wanted some guys to experience Argentina away from home too.

“There were a few players that never experienced that because we are out of Super Rugby. For Argentina not even have a provincial competition where they play, what Felipe has done with his team is really impressive. They beat the All Blacks and denied them a bonus point, they Australia by 60 points and he’s getting really tight as Argentinians.

“Ben-Jason Dixon, Jaden Hendrikse, Jan-Hendrik Wessels, Ruan Nortje, Elrigh Louw and a couple of the guys would have faced Argentina for the first time here, so lessons to be learned but also the game could have been won even though we made a lot of errors.”

Positives

Despite the gamble not paying off, Erasmus took some positives from the performances as the Springboks were able to put themselves into a position to win the match despite the pressure Argentina put them under and their own mistakes.