VIDEO: Rassie's 36-man squad for Aussies taking shape
VIDEO: After three Test matches and a friendly against the Barbarians, the big question on everyone’s lips now is ‘Who will be in, and who will be out?’
The Springboks have beaten Italy twice and dismissed a game Georgia in Mbombela on Saturday by 55-10, but a few question marks remain.
The Springbok coach has tested different combinations and given most of his extended squad a run thus far to determine who he will take into the Rugby Championship.
One of his stars, flyhalf Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, had a torrid time with the boot, but Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus revealed after the match that the No.10 injured his hip in training but it was decided that he was good to go.
The debutant front row of Boan Venter, Marnus van der Merwe, and Neethling Fouch all came through with flying colours, Cobus Wiese had a solid outing at No.8, while captain Siya Kolisi made a return to the pitch for the first time this year.
Edwill van der Merwe is knocking on the door for a more permanent berth, Canan Moodie is improving with every game at centre, and old stalwarts like Pieter-Steph du Toit, Eben Etzebeth, Damian de Allende, and Kwagga Smith remain the cream of the crop.
So, where to from here with the Rugby Championships around the corner?
Erasmus says while performances have been up and down, the Springboks still won all their games this year with relative ease, and his final group for the first two Test matches against Australia is taking shape.
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“If you look at the four games, in each game we came close to 50, except for Italy in the first match.
“We have to take the blame, and understand that if you chop and change teams, we are building squad depth, but we are losing rhythm.
“We are fairly happy, it could’ve been better,” he admitted during the post-match press conference at the Mbombela Stadium.
“What we expected from them [Georgia] was physicality and being disruptive, and they certainly did that. But I don’t think it was a performance of 80 minutes.
“There were a lot of guys who made a lot of errors today because of the disruptive way [Georgia played], and when I say that, I don’t mean it in a negative way about Georgia, they do it really well.”
Feinberg-Mngomezulu did not have his finest outing in a Springbok jersey, missing four conversion kicks, kicking out directly while one of his kicks was stormed down.
But the coach was not too deterred by the flyhalf’s performance.
“Sacha is not necessarily our first choice 10. We’ve got Manie [Libbok] who is pretty much on song, and when Handre [Pollard] came on, he was pretty solid.
“I think if you just look at Sacha’s goal kicking, he missed four, and I think after that he ended well. In the warm-up, he got a hip pointer [injury], and we weren’t sure if we should push him through. But he wanted to play,” the coach explained.
“I don’t know if that was an excuse for how he kicked at poles. But he definitely ran it out.
“We like flyhalves who try things on the field. Not just to play in their little box and be safe.
“And he certainly wasn’t one of the guys who made the most errors today. There were a lot of guys who made a lot of errors because of the disruptive way Georgia played, in-your-face and thriving on spoiling.
“I am not frustrated with Sacha, it is only his second start for us this year. He is young compared to our other flyhalves.”
Erasmus confirmed a 36-man squad will be named on Tuesday for the start of the two Tests against Australia.
“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 explained.
“The Rugby Championship is a step up to Tier Two nations, the Barbarians, and the Italy matches.”
The coach also said nine players will be on standby as cover for injuries.
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