VIDEO: Rassie scoffs at 'B Boks' bee
VIDEO: Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus was adamant that the team he selected for the one-off Test against Portugal in Bloemfontein on Saturday is not a ‘B-Team’.
Erasmus was asked if he had selected ‘second stringers’ to face Portugal, a team that is regarded as a second Tier and ranked just 15th in the world.
The Bok coach first tried to make light of the comment.
However, he responded deliberately, comparing the combinations for this weekend to that of recent Tests.
“No, it’s not a B-team,” he said firmly.
“It’s a team that I thought if they played last week against Ireland it would’ve been a tight Test match.
“And that’s what we want.
“In each position [there must be] two experienced guys and a young [player] knocking on the door to come through.
“We know we are going to have speedbumps, like [last] Saturday, which is not lekker to face.
“I’m hoping for these guys to be proud.”
According to the coach, the margins between the pairings from previous Test matches to this weekend are small.
“If you compare [Aphelele] Fassi with Sacha [Feinberg-Mngomezulu], and you compare Lukhanyo [Am] and Jessie [Kriel], and Andre [Esterhuizen] and Damian [de Allende], and Manie [Libbok] and Sacha or Damian Willemse…
“Manie and Cobus [Reinach] played in the World Cup semifinal, they were the pairing there.
“Ben-Jason Dixon is not far off from a guy like Pieter-Steph [du Toit] in the way he plays.
“RG [Snyman] and Salmaan [Moerat] were in the team that played last week.
“Thomas du Toit went to the World Cup and everyone knows how well he did for Bath.
“So the young guys in there are Phepsi [Buthelezi], Johan Grobbelaar, Jan-Hendrik Wessels, and a few on the bench,” Erasmus explained.
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The most capped Springboks in action this weekend are Trevor Nyakane with 67 caps playing off the bench, Makazole Mapimpi (42), Snyman (36), Am (35), and Reinach (32).
“Eben Etzebeth [has] 120 caps and there probably is a Namibia somewhere in there, and there’s a Romania somewhere.
“So a Test cap is a Test cap.
“These guys [Portugal] beat Fiji and they beat Ireland in a chukkas warm-up game.
“I expect them, and they expect it from themselves, to represent themselves as Springboks in a team that’s No.1 in the world,” Erasmus said.
He also reiterated that the Portuguese should not be taken lightly.
“When I spoke to the Irish after the game in the changing room and told them we are playing Portugal, they said not to underestimate them and that they beat them before the World Cup.
“It’s going to be a busy game.
“I think they are going to avoid our set-pieces and try and move us around.
“And the sell-out crowd, that makes it special for a guy like Jan-Hendrik Wessels and Andre-Hugo [Venter] and the guys who were at Grey [College].”
Erasmus spent 18 years in Bloemfontein, as a player and later as a coach of the Cheetahs, and says it is a special place for him.
“It’s special for me every single time. I always used to go and sit on the pavilion and I thought I wanted to play for the Free State on this field.
“When they built the new pavilion I remember the first match played there.
“For me it’s special. Bloemfontein is special and I guess even more for those guys.”
