Win or lose in Santiago, Boks will be at full-strength in Mbombela, says Erasmus

Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus said that a close to full-strength Bok team will do business in the final game of the Rugby Championship in Mbombela next week, whether they win or lose on Saturday against Argentina in Santiago.

Erasmus was asked at the team announcement conference this week whether he would be looking to name a similar Bok team to the one that turned out against Portugal in Bloemfontein in July, if they were to sew up the Rugby Championship title this weekend.

No more experimentation

Against the Portuguese, the Boks fielded a largely inexperienced side, featuring exciting up and coming talents and fringe players who were not in the Boks’ main group that faced Ireland in a two Test series at the end of June and beginning of July.

Erasmus though was quick to dispel that thought, explaining that they had already given plenty of players a run over the international season so far and that they would field a strong team next weekend.

“I don’t think we will do that. We have had our time where we have experimented with almost 15 changes, and like this weekend where we have 10 changes in the team. But we are now at a stage where we believe this is the last game for us to experiment,” said Erasmus.

“Next week in our final match in South Africa we may have one or two youngsters who will get into the mix as they have pushed themselves ahead of some of the older guys, but we won’t just be giving guys caps and, being at home in the last match of the Rugby Championship, we want to put out our strongest team for the fans.”

Powerful Argentina

Talking about this Saturday’s match in Santiago, Erasmus said he and the squad were fully aware of how strong the hosts are on home soil, especially with a passionate crowd set to back them, while they also know a bonus point win will keep them firmly in the Rugby Championship chase going into next weekend’s final game in Mbombela.

“Argentina are a force to be reckoned with at home and they’ll be even more charged up for this match knowing that a bonus-point victory or just a victory could keep them in the race for their first ever title, so we know they will not give us an inch,” said Erasmus.

“They are a quality team with strong forwards and talented backs, and they like to keep the ball alive, so we need to be accurate in every aspect of our game and deny them from stamping their authority, but rather enforcing our style of play on them.”