Rassie reveals his plans for Boks’ two Tests against Argentina

Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus was already looking ahead to the Boks’ next major assignment, their two games home and away against Argentina in the Rugby Championship, shortly after beating the All Blacks for the second time in two matches and knocking them out of the running in the competition.

The Boks’ 18-12 win at the Cape Town Stadium on Saturday moved them onto 18 points on the log, while Argentina thrashed the Wallabies 67-27 to lift themselves above New Zealand into second place on 10 points.

The All Blacks on seven, and Australia on five, are both now out of the running ahead of their final two games of the competition that they will battle out against each other.

The Boks thus have one hand already on the trophy as for Argentina to pip them they will need to pick up two bonus point wins in Santiago and in Mbombela, while not allowing the South Africans any bonus points of their own.

Split squads

Erasmus admitted after the All Blacks match in Cape Town on Saturday that they would be splitting their squads for the two games against Los Pumas, with a group flying over to South America and one staying back home to prepare for their final match of the competition.

“The guys who will play away in Argentina are already known, that has been announced internally, and they have already been training together,” explained Erasmus.

“We will have a three-day break now before gathering in Stellenbosch on Wednesday night. We will then send one group over there and one group will remain in South Africa for the home game.”

This is a tactic that the Boks have deployed before, as recently as last year in the Rugby Championship, when they sent arguably their first choice team over to New Zealand early, while allowing their more fringe players to face the Wallabies at Loftus.

However, it didn’t come off as they thumped Australia 43-12, while their main group seemed to lack match fitness as they went down 35-20 in Auckland.

This will be a very different situation though, with the Boks holding a significant lead on the log, while they have also rotated their squad regularly this season, and those players will have no problems slotting back in to play, having linked up before against Portugal and Australia.

“We are at a stage where there are young guys knocking hard on the door. You can handle it two ways, see it as competition, or rather prolonging the senior players’ careers because they only play every second or third match,” said Erasmus on how they were looking to manage the players.

“The older guys will try make it (to the 2027 World Cup) if their bodies will allow it. And the younger guys must get enough Test experience. It is a good mix of trying to build together for the next few years.”