No set game plan for Green and Gold ahead of Springbok Showdown

There will be no specific instruction to follow a blueprint Springbok game plan, according to national director of rugby Rassie Erasmus, when Green and Gold teams meet at Newlands in the Springbok Showdown this weekend.

Erasmus, who will take a back seat this week due to illness, was recently announced as the commissioner of the Green side, with Mzwandile Stick taking up the coaching duties of the exhibition team, while Bok coach Jacques Nienaber and Deon Davids were in the corner of the Gold side.

For Erasmus, however, this week was about getting the players on the same page with regard to Bok protocols.

“There won’t be a set game plan. ‘Sticks’ will have for instance a certain attacking strategy from a lineout play, and Deon will in turn have a certain play he wants to introduce, but it won’t be Springbok blueprint as such, and not printed into the guys heads,” he said.

While it would be exciting to see the
different line-ups going up against one another, Erasmus stressed the one-off friendly clash was not a mini-battle between him and Nienaber.

“Our programme is a little bit different this week, but with the amount of time we have with the players we agreed between us as coaches we are going to share a lot of Springbok environment with them,” he said.

“How we do things, how we analyse things, how we plan a week, how we
analyse the opposition. Jacques already showed the guys a few things on Argentina.”

Nienaber had held his usual team meetings, and Erasmus said they wanted to get the players in the Bok squad accustomed to their way of doing things by introducing the culture and systems this week.

“I listened to all the meetings where Jacques explained to them how team selection works, how you get in a Bok team, and what we are rating you on,” Erasmus said.

“It’s about getting to meet the players and getting to know their characters.”

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.