VIDEO: Roos will be back, but it's Elrigh's turn
VIDEO: The Springboks have not closed the door on Evan Roos but now is the time for Elrigh Louw to showcase his talents at No.8 in the Springboks’ two Tests against the Wallabies in Australia.
When Roos got the proverbial snub from the Springboks for the Rugby Championship matches in Australia following the Test against Portugal, rumours were rife that he had fallen out of favour with the Springbok selectors.
On Tuesday, a day before the Boks depart on their tour Down Under, Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus set the record straight that Roos could very well still play a part in the Green and Gold this year.
It has been rumoured that Japanese clubs have started circling around Roos and that he is on the hit list of at least two Japan Rugby League One sides.
However, the 24-year-old still has three years left on his contract with the Stormers.
Erasmus adamantly defied suggestions that Roos was out of the mix.
“We have two full loose forward troops.
“Marco [van Staden] and Siya [Kolisi] can play No.6, Pieter-Steph [du Toit] and Ben-Jason [Dixon] can play No.7, and Kwagga [Smith] and Elrigh [Louw] can play No.8.
“Elrigh can also play No.7,” Erasmus explained.
“I don’t think Pieter-Steph will be utilised at No.8, and certainly Evan [Roos] is not out of the mix.
“Before the Portugal Test match, we told the guys you get a chance here, go out and put up your hand.
“And certainly, a few guys did.
“But we must also experience Elrigh against the big nations because he was always part of our plans.”
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Erasmus said Louw experienced a lull in his performance while at the same time, the Springbok management is well aware of what Roos can do.
“He[Louw] did take a dip in form, he will admit it himself, and we know what Evan can do now. And Evan is not thrown away, we still have nine Test matches this year,” he confirmed.
“So like we did against Argentina away last year, we picked a totally different team like we did against Portugal.
“So, we are building squad depth.
“We know what Evan can do, he certainly didn’t have bad games. And we know he is comfortable in the Springbok set-up.
“We now get to see if Elrigh gets a chance and what he can do.
“We are trying to get caps under the belt.
“We know what he [Roos] can do and we have no problem with what he did for us.
“But it’s time to give Elrigh a chance against Top Tier nations and see what he can do.
“The Bulls went the deepest into the competition and he was certainly one of the more physical players in that set-up,” the coach said.
Erasmus refuted claims that Roos has a different type of game when playing for the Stormers to what he did for the Springboks.
“On defence, the roles are pretty much the same as it is with the Stormers.
“I think most of the South African teams have more or less the same defensive mindsets. There might be small tweaks here and there.
“But we are pretty familiar with the way the Stormers defend with Normal Laker [Stormers defence coach] there.
“There are no prescriptions more than what we will have for Elrigh or for Pieter-Steph or Kwagga or for anybody else.
“We are not punching his type of play in.
“I would rather say we encouraged him more to play the way Evan wanted to play and he did.
“He made a few errors like anybody else who hasn’t got more than ten Test caps under his belt,” he concluded on the matter.
