VIDEO: The unknown factor that forced Rassie's hand
The importance of the occasion has forced South Africa to delay the announcement of their team.
This is one of the more curious developments ahead of the Rugby Championship Round Three face-off between the All Blacks and Springboks in Auckland on Saturday.
When the Rugby Championship resumes this week, after a brief pause, Rounds Three and Four may well decide the outcome of the Southern Hemisphere championship.
With just two points separating the All Blacks in first place on the standings (six points) and Argentina (four points) in last place, the Eden Park face-off will be decisive.
It is a venue where New Zealand have not lost since 1994 (when France beat them) and where South Africa have not won since 1937.
Erasmus, never shy to introduce some guilefulness ahead of games, made two fascinating calls – calling up a scrumhalf for a hooker and delaying his team announcement.
With Morné van den Berg struggling with a ‘niggle’, Erasmus revealed that they opted to call up a scrumhalf (Faf de Klerk), rather than a hooker for Bongi Mbonambi, who remained behind in South Africa to attend to family matters.
With Malcolm Marx, Marnus van der Merwe and utility Jan-Hendrik Wessels, the Boks have plenty of cover at hooker.
However, the delayed team announcement has to do more with the unknown factor in the All Black squad, rather than any Bok disruptions.
(WATCH as Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus explains why he delayed his team announcement ahead of the crunch Test against the All Blacks.…)
“We are not sure what New Zealand will put out there,” Erasmus said, in explaining the decision to move his team announcement from the traditional Tuesday revelation to Thursday.
“We think we will have more of a benefit by naming it on Thursday, when they name their team,” was the Bok coach’s candid response.
“It [their team] is a bit of an unknown.
“Most of the other teams we could, more or less, guess what selection they will field, or have a good guesstimate of what their team would look like.
This game is such a big game that the best thing is not for New Zealand to be able to analyse us that much.”
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