More changes on cards as Boks gear up for Wales, says Rassie

After beating Scotland with a youthful lineup comprising 12 players with fewer than 10 caps, the Springboks are set to field another experimental side when they face Wales in Durban on Saturday, coach Rassie Erasmus said.

After making 10 starting changes from the side that beat England at Ellis Park, a youthful Bok side pulled off a 42-28 win over the Scots in the second round of the Nations Championship at Loftus Versveld on Saturday.

Erasmus has hinted that Stormers playmaker Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu could be back in the mix for the Durban showdown.

“When you walked out at Loftus on Saturday and you see Ox Nché, Malcolm Marx, Eben Etzebeth, Siya Kolisi, Lood de Jager, Franco Mostert, and Cobus Reinach in the stands, and you think about Sacha, Manie Libbok, Damian de Allende, Cheslin Kolbe, Kurt-Lee Arendse and Canan Moodie, you see a lot of guys who are coming back,” Erasmus said.

“This week in Durban will probably be some guys returning to fitness.

“To get Ethan Hooker through another couple of minutes, maybe give Jesse Kriel a rest; we’ll see.

“Canan might be at full fitness, and we’ll switch him to 13. We’ll probably get Sacha into the group, because he might be ready for Argentina.

Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus. Picture: (FREDLIN ADRIAAN)

“Morne van den Berg is really close to full fitness. I think a guy like Siya and Lood, hopefully, will be ready.

“It’ll be a combination of some guys coming back from injury and making sure we have more caps than our opposition, because we were totally outnumbered in experience against Scotland.”

Erasmus said the win over Scotland had been a vital learning experience for the Boks.

“It’s much nicer when you win and you learn than when you lose and you learn,” he said.

“There was a stage in 2018 when we were learning, but we were losing.

“But it was important to find out who can do it at this level and who needs some work.

“We had 12 guys who each had fewer than 10 caps — half the team — so we knew cohesion was going to be a problem against Scotland.

“That you could see in the defence when we made some subs at the end.

“We learnt a lot about some players.

“Not that they are not good enough, but that there’s a lot of work to be done.

“This is the test that some of the guys needed.

“Not against a tier two nation, but against a tier one nation that’s a really class team.”

Erasmus said fans understood what the Boks were trying to achieve with their selection policy.

“I don’t think the crowd was happy at the end, but I think South Africa understands what we tried to do in this game,” he said.

“In the past I felt if we made four changes, people would ask, ‘What are you doing?’

“But I feel the interaction between us and the supporters, through the media, gives us a togetherness, and people know what we are trying to do.

“I think that’s something that’s changed over the years.

“It’s the crowd believing in the team and the team believing in South Africa, because they could easily have gone against us with those easy tries we gave away, but there are a few players who haven’t done it at this level.

“If we lose, the knives will be out.

“For me the most important thing is learning about the players.

“If we had lost this game, I think there would be some of the crowd who would understand what we tried to do. Luckily we won.”

Scorers:

South Africa 42: Tries: Embrose Papier, Evan Roos, Elrigh Louw, Damian Willemse, Zack Porthen, Jesse Kriel. Conversions: Handre Pollard (5), Quan Horn.

Scotland 28: Tries: Matt Fagerson, Kyle Rowe, Josh Bayliss, Ben White. Conversions: Finn Russell (4).