Rassie Erasmus says the Springboks’ heavy squad rotation this year was always designed with Saturday’s series-deciding fourth Test against the All Blacks in mind, reports DEVIN HERMANUS.
South Africa now go into Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry’s Baltimore finale chasing a rare series win over New Zealand after building toward peak form late in the campaign.
“We’ve never played long tours as a group together, but we’ve played three World Cups together – well, two – and we played the British & Irish Lions series together,” Erasmus said during Monday’s teleconference, which followed the announcement of Damian Willemse’s return and scrumhalf Morné van den Berg’s promotion to the starting XV.
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“I’m not saying I’m correct, but we’ve found that games three and four are where the series gets won or lost. You could lose the first two, but then win three and four …
“So we felt ‘gas in the tank’ was important, and that’s why we managed the guys so much in the Nations Championship. We only have six games left [in 2026], so we’ve chopped and changed a lot.
“We felt we’d probably start to get continuity in games two, three and four, with game one more about guys coming back from injury.
“Peaking, hopefully, at games three and four was always the plan … because it’s not often that you get the opportunity to try and win a series against New Zealand.”
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He also addressed a year in which lock stocks were initially stretched thin, but is now confident depth exists across several key positions.
“We’ve been depleted in areas, without a doubt, at some stage … we were down to Riley [Norton], Ben-Jason [Dixon] started playing lock.
“Now we’re in a healthy position. I think RG [Snyman] is back early next year. Salmaan [Moerat] … he’s off to France; he’s going to play.
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“Ruan [Nortjé] has established himself as one of our solid five locks who can play at any level, and it also helped getting guys like Ben-Jason a chance or two at lock.
“We weren’t too sure how the legs of Cobus [Reinach] would hold up at 35, but he’s definitely doing the job. We had a look at Faf [de Klerk]; we know how well he’s playing for the Cheetahs.
“We’ve got three proper flyhalves, with Damian, who can also play flyhalf. A guy like Quan Horn has come through at fullback now and Embrose [Papier] we gave a run.
“I don’t think there’s an area where we’re in trouble, we’re doing OK.”
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Photo: Anton Geyser/Gallo Images
