VIDEO: The Bomb Squad revamp no one expected
TURIN, ITALY: Who would’ve thought that we would see a Springbok team without the name of Malcolm Marx in it? Not in the starting line-up and not on the bench.
But that is the scenario when the Springboks face Italy in Turin on Saturday afternoon.
A lot of trust has been put in Johan Grobbelaar, who starts in the No.2 jersey, while there is no outright hooker on the bench for this encounter.
It is another opportunity for Grobbelaar to show he can step into that elusive role as Marx’s deputy with Bongi Mbonambi seemingly out of the picture for now.
Should Grobbelaar not be able to go the full 80, loose forward Marco van Staden will move into the hooker position and either Siya Kolisi or Kwagga Smith will then move into the No.8 position.
Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus has mentioned before that Grobbelaar is one of the fittest players in the squad, so if he doesn’t get injured, he won’t need replacing.
Grobbelaar’s toughest job will most likely be throwing in at line-outs to a lock combination of Jean Kleyn and Franco Mostert, who haven’t played together for some time.
Van Staden was one of the standout players in the first Test against Italy earlier in the year at Loftus Versfeld, not only making plans to counter Italy at the breakdowns, but also scoring a try in that tough match.
Rugby365 asked the coach if this was one of the reasons why Van Staden has been given such vital roles in the game in Turin this weekend.
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“Not just that. It’s tough when you have Kwagga [Smith], Pieter-Steph [du Toit] and Siya [Kolisi] to get all of those guys into the mix in a Test match.
“We feel that if Marco can really master the role, which is tough, not just scrumming and line-out throwing. He will definitely make a lot of errors when he moves to hooker in the game.
“But we expect that, and we are willing to take the risk. But at six flank, he is very comfortable, and he has always been one of our standout players there.
“And he did really well against Italy [in South Africa], helping us to sort out the breakdown, so that will be the plan.
“Marco is out and out the hooker back-up, and Kwagga can play six as well,” Erasmus confirmed, and added that injuries during the game will likely determine where players will move to.
He also confirmed that Andre Esterhuizen will remain a hybrid player, so he will most likely pack down on the side of the scrum once more.
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“So it depends on whether we get an injury. If we get an injury at 12, Andre will move to 12 first.
“But if everything goes well, we would like to see him again in that hybrid role at six flank.
“So Ruan [Nortje] will probably cover seven for us if something happens to Ben-Jason [Dixon] and at eight it will be between Siya and Kwagga, who can both cover that.
“But hopefully the combinations work. I think it will be a bit sticky and rusty in the beginning because it’s a couple of new guys together.
“People must understand that there is no way that we will, or can, underestimate this Italian team. They came out to us in June and we really struggled against them.
“The scoreboard, even the second test, didn’t really reflect how tough they were.
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