Rassie explains reason for Boks’ 5-3 bench split for key All Blacks Test

The Springboks have backed the traditional, but scarcely used, five-three bench split of forwards to backs for their huge Rugby Championship encounter against the All Blacks at the Cape Town Stadium on Saturday (5pm).

The Boks usually deploy their ‘Bomb Squad’ with a six-two split, while they have recently brought in the seven-one split to make their bench even more forward-heavy in some big games.

However, coach Rassie Erasmus sprung a bit of a surprise at Thursday’s team announcement for Saturday’s match with the five-three split, that will see Jaden Hendrikse, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and Lukhanyo Am as the back replacements on the bench.

Talking about the decision, Erasmus said: “We feel it’s a game where we’ll definitely have to match their speed with which they played last week (at Ellis Park) and we think having three backs on the bench will help with that a lot.

“Pieter-Steph (du Toit) covers lock for us, so although Salmaan Moerat is very unlucky (to miss out on selection), we didn’t have to pick an extra lock on the bench, and we will be able to put the two loose forwards on at some point.

“That will probably almost give you a six-two split as Pieter-Steph is just a guy who can play 80 (minutes) over and over, but we’ll probably have to give him a rest sometime (in the next few games).”

Team changes

Besides changing the makeup of the bench, Erasmus has also tinkered with his starting team following last weekend’s 31-27 win, including bringing back the experienced Willie le Roux and Handre Pollard at fullback and flyhalf respectively, while Grant Williams will get a start at scrumhalf and Canan Moodie replaces the concussed Kurt-Lee Arendse on the wing.

“There’s games where you want to grow the team and there’s games where you desperately want to win and I think trying to win this game would mean a lot in the Rugby Championship for the last two rounds,” said Erasmus.

“That’s not to say you want your best players on the field, but you want (as many of) your best players in the group there.

“We think Grant deserved a start. Every time he comes on, he definitely brings speed to the game but so does Cobus (Reinach).

“The temptation was there to start Jaden (Hendrikse) and to have that blitz speed (from Williams) after the guys are a little tired, but after thinking about it, we decided let’s see how deep into the game he can deliver that before bringing Jaden on.

“(In the end) this is a big game for us, not just for the Rugby Championship, but us against the All Blacks at the Cape Town Stadium is a big one and everyone wants to play in it.

“I did see a few sad faces when we named the team on Monday. But the whole squad is supporting us.”