Springbok hooker Malcolm Marx is in line to make his return from injury for the Boks against Wales next weekend. Picture: Alex Davidson/Getty Images
Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus is eager to unleash their newbies on Wales in their first Test of the international season, but also have enough experience in the team to secure a win when the sides meet at Twickenham next week Saturday.
Eleven uncapped players were named in the Boks first 35-man training squad of the season, and a number of them are expected to make their debuts in the match.
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The Test that falls outside of the international window, meaning all of the Boks European and UK based players, as well as the Bulls players still involved in the United Rugby Championship are unavailable, but their Japanese and other locally based players are in the mix.
They thus have lots of experience to call upon including the likes of World Cup winners Eben Etzebeth, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Bongi Mbonambi, Ox Nche, Frans Malherbe, Cheslin Kolbe, Damian de Allende and Faf de Klerk amongst others.
Malcolm Marx is also in line to play, with him yet to make his return to the playing field from a knee injury suffered during last year’s World Cup, with Erasmus admitting they would look to manage him carefully back into the fold.
“Malcolm is a guy you probably want to manage more, with the other hookers around. You have to think carefully because you want to see some new blood playing, but you also don’t want what happened in 2018 where we blooded a lot of guys but we lost the Test match (against Wales in Washington),” explained Erasmus.
“We want to win the Test match, we want to manage some guys getting back from injury and we want to blood some youngsters. It is a bit of a balancing act, but as the week goes on, we will get clarity.
“Like if Malcolm can play in that game, and Cheslin (Kolbe), we have to manage him. If we put them in cotton wool they won’t be match fit and battle ready for Ireland. Wales is certainly no pushover, as we have experienced in the past.”
Erasmus is also looking forward to having a good catch-up with close friend and former Bok coach Jacques Nienaber this weekend, with him in Pretoria with his side Leinster for their URC semifinal against the Bulls.
Asked whether he would try to get some information out of Nienaber ahead of the Boks massive incoming series against Ireland, Erasmus said with a laugh:
“No, I would never do that to him. We are planning to try and meet their coaching team with our coaching team. We will try and catch up and have supper or a beer or two, but that will be purely to catch up.
“He is with his coaches and preparing for his game. We will never take a chance like that to put him in a position where he can lose the trust of the Leinster coaches. We will never put him in that position and the same on the other side. But he always remains a close friend, that’s for sure.”
