The headline writers stated that there were only a few tweaks to the Springbok pack ahead of Saturday’s second test against England in Bloemfontein, but in reality Rassie Erasmus has again made a forceful statement about his willingness to be both brave and bold.
The omission of Elton Jantjies from the reserve bench, meaning that the Boks go into this game with no established flyhallf back-up, has understandably raised eyebrows. It is almost unheard of for a professional team to go onto the field without someone who can fit in easily at flyhalf should the first choice go down.
There is, however, good method in Erasmus’s out-of-the-box thinking and it underlines where he thinks his team has the beating of England.
The explosive bench he selected last week for Emirates Airline Park didn’t really have the impact we might have expected. When the Boks led by 10 points and the likes of Akker van der Merwe, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Thomas du Toit and Steven Kitshoff were all on the field, we would have expected them to ruthlessly press on towards the 50-point mark.
As Erasmus explained afterwards, there was a reason it didn’t happen. He spoke about the trip to Washington to play Wales the week before, and the impact that would have had on energy levels. Almost all of the bench players took that long flight across the time zones, a crazy undertaking if you consider how important the first test against England was.
Those players will be recovered from their jet lag now and it could well be the bench that will give the Boks a significant edge in what could be a tight test.
There are fewer better finishers than Jesse Kriel, and when the pace has been increased and the game is fast and loose, he can impose himself. The rest of the bench players are all well equipped to do that, too. PLEASE NOTE OAKS)
If starting flyhalf Handre Pollard is injured early on, perhaps Erasmus will regret his decision. Having a stop-gap flyhalf for around 60 to 70 minutes is different to having one for the last part of the game, where, by the way, the Boks could also find themselves feeling a bit short if they need to win the clash with a kick.
THE WILLIE FACTOR
Faf de Klerk will take over the place-kicking duties if required, something he has apparently done successfully at Sale, and he can also fill in at flyhallf if he is needed. But it is the identity of the likely fill-in pivot, Willie le Roux, that should elicit second thoughts about whether it would really be such a major problem for the Boks should Pollard go down.
In fact, the opposition coach for this clash, Eddie Jones, might be able to tell us a few things about the perils of facing a flyhalf you haven’t seen much of in that position before and who comes out of left field. He was the coach of the Wallaby team that lost against the Boks in one of the most memorable matches of the previous decade at Ellis Park in 2002.
Remember that game? The selected flyhalf, Andre Pretorius, went down on the morning of the game, and Rudolf Straeuli selected the diminutive but elusive and explosive Brent Russell to replace him.
When he was announced in the starting team early in the week and opposition teams had time to prepare for him and negate his strengths, Russell seldom produced when wearing the No 10 jersey, but being unleashed unexpectedly was a different story. He tore the Aussies to shreds in the early parts of that game.
Le Roux has played flyhalf before and Erasmus, who is blessed with a long memory, may well have been influenced in his selection by his recall of a Super Rugby warm-up game between the Stormers and Boland when he was director of rugby in the Cape. That was probably Le Roux’s first big game - he played for Boland that day - and he was the reason that the Stormers had to dig deep to win. He was at flyhallf.
You might hesitate in calling it a gamble, but Erasmus’s willingness to think out of the box and be bold is certainly one of the things that distinguishes him from most of his predecessors. The win last week has brought him time in the sense that it eased some of the pressure and, as he said, has allowed the team to develop without the negative noise that accompanies defeat.
He acknowledged that the task of building a squad made up of two teams capable of playing international rugby, something that is an imperative for any nation with pretensions of winning the World Cup, might result in defeat here and there.
But he should be hoping that won’t happen on Saturday as, at this embryonic stage of his tenure, he does need the creative space that winning will bring him. Good though last week’s win was, let’s not lose sight of an important fact - Allister Coetzee’s teams never lost in Johannesburg either, and in fact the come-from-behind win over Ireland at the start of his tenure was remarkably similar to last week.
The only difference between the England and Ireland games under the two different coaches in terms of how those games flowed and the momentum shifted, was that the Bok renaissance against Ireland started after halftime. Last week it started at the end of the first quarter.
ADDED INTRIGUE
Those who know Erasmus know him to be a clever and tactically astute coach and will regard last week as a positive sign of what is to come, but he does still have it all to do and that is why backing up with another win away from the “Ellis Park factor” is so important.
The way last week’s game played out has certainly added intrigue to the Bloemfontein clash, where both teams will feel they should be better prepared, more settled and more alert to what they can expect from the opposition.
However with Eddie Jones and Erasmus as the protagonists in the coaching dug-outs, who really knows what to expect tactically? Will England revert to what was expected of them last week and employ a kicking strategy, or will they have been inspired by how easy it was for them to score when they got the opportunity in Jo'burg and press on with their attacking game?
The Boks can’t expect them to be as poor defensively around the fringes as they were last week, but then England can’t expect the Bok defence to be exposed out wide like it was in the first test. England have been working hard at their discipline, so it is up to the Boks to exert the extra pressure that will throw everything they have discussed in the safety of hotel conference rooms during the build-up out of the window.
Ultimately there wasn’t a clear enough advantage for either side at Emirates Airline Park to make a prediction for the Bloemfontein game with any great assurance. One thing we can be sure of though is that the Boks should feel more settled and confident, and unless England have shut them out of the game by the 60th minute, the smart money should be on the Bok bench lifting the team intensity in the last quarter to ensure a series win.
TEAMS
South Africa: Willie le Roux, S’busiso Nkosi, Lukhanyo Am, Damian de Allende, Aphiwe Dyantyi, Handre Pollard, Faf de Klerk, Duane Vermeulen, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Siya Kolisi (captain), Franco Mostert, RG Snyman, Frans Malherbe, Bongo Mbonambi, Tendai Mtawarira. Replacements: Akker van der Merwe, Steven Kitshoff, Thomas du Toit, Jean-Luc du Preez, Sikhumbuzo Notshe, Ivan van Zyl, Jesse Kriel, Warrick Gelant.
England: Elliot Daly, Jonny May, Henry Slade, Owen Farrell (captain), Mike Brown, George Ford, Ben Youngs, Billy Vunipola, Tom Curry, Brad Shields, Joe Launchbury, Maro Itoje, Kyle Sinckler, Jamie George, Mako Vunipola. Replacements: Luke Cowan-Dicks, Joe Marler, Harry Williams, Nathan Hughes, Mark Wilson, Ben Spencer, Danny Cipriani, Denny Solomona.
Referee: Romaine Poite (France)
Kick-off: 5.05pm
Prediction: Boks to win by 7
