Rassie ready to throw rookies into Twickers cauldron

TWICKENHAM SPOTLIGHT: Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus believes he will get some answers to pressing questions this week.

The absence of several players – as a result of the match being outside the Test window – means Erasmus will finally dip into his back-up resources when South Africa tackle England.

While there are selections posers all over the team – fullback, loose forward, lock and front row – it is at scrumhalf where the focus will be this week.

With Sale Sharks-based Francois de Klerk not in the selections frame, Erasmus will rely on a trio that has a combined of eight Test caps’ worth of experience.

Embrose Papier (four), Ivan van Zyl (three) and Louis Schreuder (one) have eight caps between them.

De Klerk, 27, has 20 – courtesy of having featured in nine of South Africa’s 10 Tests this year.

Erasmus said they always knew there would be selection issues surrounding the Twickenham fixture.

“By not having guys like Faf [Francois de Klerk] and Willie [le Roux] available for this match, it puts some pressure on us in terms of the result,” he said of the high premium that is placed on a Springbok victory.

“However, in terms of seeing some other players at a full Twickenham, under pressure against a good English team, will provide us with some answers.”

He also does not see the lack of experience as an issue.

“We played against England in June with an outside centre and two wings who didn’t have a single Test cap between them.

“Faf is also not that experienced, he has just 20 caps.

“We are thin [in terms of experience], it is just one of those cycles we are going through where we don’t have a lot of experienced scrumhalves.

“Ivan [van Zyl] and Embrose [Papier] have been in our system since the beginning of the year.

“It is not as if they have to learn everything from scratch.

“Yes, the pressure will be one [them]. It is different from the conditions in South Africa, so we will be tested at No.9.”

@rugby365com