Rassie Erasmus: This is no Bok ‘B-team’

Rassie Erasmus is adamant that the 23-man Springbok squad selected for the historic Test against Portugal in Bloemfontein is not a ‘B-team’.

Erasmus named a heavily changed line-up captained for the first time by Salmaan Moerat and featuring seven debutants for Saturday’s Test.

Watch: More questions than answers for Boks

Four players who tackled Ireland in the second Test in Durban have been retained: Kurt-Lee Arendse, RG Snyman, Moerat and Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu.

However, when asked after naming the side whether it would be accurate to refer to it as a B-team, Erasmus scoffed at the suggestion.

“No, it’s not a B-team,” Erasmus said.

“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 speed bumps, like [last] Saturday, which is not lekker to face. I’m hoping for these guys to be proud.”

Despite the number of changes, the side still features an experienced spine, with Rugby World Cup winners Lukhanyo Am, Andre Esterhuizen, Manie Libbok and Cobus Reinach all making their first Test appearances of the year.

“If you compare [Aphelele] Fassi with Sacha [Feinberg-Mngomezulu], and you compare Lukhanyo and Jessie [Kriel], and Andre and Damian [de Allende], and Manie and Sacha or Damian Willemse,” Erasmus detailed.

“Manie and Cobus played in the world cup semi-final, 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.

“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.

“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 number one in the world.”