Rassie Erasmus has revealed his plans for the Springboks’ opening two Rugby Championship matches against the Wallabies and All Blacks.
The Boks kick off their international campaign against the Wallabies in Johannesburg on 20 July before taking on the All Blacks in Wellington a week later.
While Erasmus has hinted that the squads will split for the two Test matches, he detailed his plans to the media at the Boks’ camp in Pretoria on Thursday.
A team of 15 players, which will be named next Wednesday, will travel to New Zealand and will be joined by the coaches and eight reserves, who will fly out on Saturday after the Wallabies game.
‘The team already knows what it will look like,’ Erasmus said. ‘What we will try to do is take the best [to New Zealand].
‘There are a few players who you can say are streets ahead of the others. That is the nice thing at this stage. There are only four or five positions where you can say a player is clear-cut first choice and those players will go to New Zealand.
‘I am pretty comfortable,’ Erasmus added. ‘I know Australia will come here and pick their first-choice team against us. I wouldn’t say that is a catch-22 for us but if they pick their strongest team and we have 15 guys in New Zealand, and we manage to beat them even though we have mixed up the team, that will provide an even bigger boost.
‘We will be working really hard to beat Australia. Post that match, on Saturday evening the coaches plus eight reserves will fly out. The rest of the squad will fly on Sunday and arrive on Tuesday.’
Photo: Hannah Peters/Getty Image
