A masterful Springbok selection by Rassie: The doctor of depth

The Springboks continue their autumn series against England this Saturday.

Following an edgy 32-15 victory over Scotland, Rassie Erasmus has reintroduced his regular starters – Cheslin Kolbe, Jesse Kriel and Kurt-Lee Arendse – as they gear up for a hotly contested outing against England.

Kick-off: 19:40

They will play in front of a packed out Twickenham Stadium, and you can be sure that ‘Swing Low’ will be reverberating across the 82,000-capacity arena in the first five minutes – the Springboks hope to dampen an already moody England camp who lost to Australia after the buzzer last weekend.

The Doctor of depth

Few, if any, can juggle a squad like Erasmus, able to keep opponents in the dark as to who he will pick – a powerful and unique skill that it seems only he possesses; of course, the amount of talent in South Africa helps.

From Ireland and New Zealand to England and Scotland, you more or less know what side they will play week in, week out, but with the Springboks, it remains elusive – it’s like trying to guess how many sweets are in the jar; you might be confident with your answer, but you’ll never be certain until the result comes out.

Upcoming Springbok Squad

South Africa: 15 Aphelele Fassi, 14 Cheslin Kolbe, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Kurt-Lee Arendse, 10 Manie Libbok, 9 Grant Williams, 8 Jasper Wiese, 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 6 Siya Kolisi (captain), 5 RG Snyman, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3  Wilco Louw, 2 Bongi Mbonambi, 1 Ox Nche.

Replacements: 16 Malcolm Marx, 17 Gerhard Steenekamp, 18 Vincent Koch, 19 Elrigh Louw, 20 Kwagga Smith, 21 Cobus Reinach, 22 Handre Pollard, 23  Lukhanyo Am

Rassie’s respects England

“England poses a completely different challenge to Scotland, and we selected our squad based on what we would like to do in the match and also what we think will be best to counter the challenge England poses,” said Erasmus.

“Fortunately, we have quite a few players who can switch positions if necessary, so we feel we have adequate depth throughout the team, which allowed us to select this group of replacements.

“England come off two narrow defeats, but the quality of their performances was good in both matches, so we size of the challenge.

“We lost narrowly to Ireland and France in back-to-back matches in 2022 and a year later were world champions so we know we shouldn’t read anything into the last two results.”

“England beat us three times out of four recently and we’ve only won three of the last six matches against them, so we have great respect for them, and we’ll certainly not underestimate them.

“As I said on Sunday, we will be facing a desperate England team that will give everything on Saturday, so the consistency in our player combinations will be vital for us to deliver the quality of the performance we would like to.

“It’s going to be vital for the players to gel quickly so hopefully we can start off strongly because we are expecting a full-out 80-minute battle.

“They are playing at home in front of a passionate home crowd, and we know they will give everything to turn their Series around, so we believe it’s going to be a hard match until the final whistle,” he added.

Do you think the Springboks will beat England?

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