Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus said his team’s misfiring performance in beating Georgia 55-10 at Mbombela on Saturday was largely due to his policy of rotating players throughout their four-match block that precedes the Rugby Championship.
Erasmus has given game time to more than 30 players in games against the Barbarians, Italy and Georgia as he deepens his depth ahead of matches next month against Australia (twice) and then New Zealand (twice) in September before finishing with two matches against Argentina.
In the three matches since the opener against the Baabaas in Cape Town on June 28, the Bok selectors have made 10, 15 and 16 personnel changes in successive weeks as they get newcomers up to speed.
“We’re fairly happy if you look over the four games,” said Erasmus. “We scored close to 50 points in each match and apart from the first Italy Test, we defended pretty well.
“Georgia were physical and disruptive, but that’s not an excuse for us making so many errors, but I guess we must understand that if we chop and change teams like we have, while we’re building squad depth, you’ll lose rhythm.
“We found cohesion in the last 20 minutes and we can be fairly happy with the scoreline, although one can always do better.”
The Springboks have a three-week break before the opening Test in the Rugby Championship, with Erasmus indicating selection will be more consistent.
“We’ll name 36 guys on Tuesday for the Australia series, and within that squad there’ll be one or two guys that we experiment with, but the bulk of that squad will be experienced players who are suited to the way we want to play,” he said.
“The nice thing is that we’ve got a group of 48 players or so that we’ve used this year, and there are quite a few that we’d also like to give opportunities to, like Jaden (Hendrikse), Jordan (Hendrikse), Quan Horn, and Renzo (du Plessis).
“But this was a series where we wanted to experiment a little bit so getting the scorelines we did is pretty satisfying. But the Rugby Championship will definitely be a step up.”
It was the Boks’ second successive victory by a margin of 45 points – following the previous week’s 45-0 win over Italy – and took the try tally to 22 in the three Tests with just four conceded.
Starting flyhalf Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu missed four conversions from five attempts but Erasmus revealed that the player suffered a hip pointer injury in the warm-up.
“We weren’t quite sure if we should push him through the game, but he wanted to play but that’s not an excuse for the way he kicked at the posts,” the Bok coach said. “He ran it out and we like guys that try things and not just play safe and he certainly was not one of the guys that made the most errors.”
The Springboks return to action on 16 August at Ellis Park when they meet Australia in the Rugby Championship.
