Rassie Erasmus is excited to have the in-form Embrose Papier back with the Springboks, and expects his partnership with Handré Pollard to be beneficial at Loftus on Saturday.
Papier, who earned all seven of his Test caps under Erasmus in 2018, returns to the fold on the back of a standout Vodacom Bulls campaign that saw him named South Africa’s URC Player of the Season.
He will partner Bulls teammate Handré Pollard at halfback against Scotland this week, in a new-look lineup for the world champions that features 10 changes from the starting XV that beat England in Joburg last week.
TEAM: Pollard, Papier take charge of new-look Boks
Speaking to the media in Pretoria on Monday, Papier admitted there are always butterflies before pulling on the green and gold jersey, but he’s relishing his first Bok start in eight years.
“There’s always nerves before a Test match but I’m super excited for the opportunity and yeah, we are just looking forward to the game,” the 29-year-old said.
Erasmus explained the thinking behind recalling Papier after such a long absence from the Test arena.
“Firstly, I thought he played really well this season,” Erasmus said. “Obviously, we’ve had guys like Faf de Klerk, Cobus Reinach and Jaden Hendrikse who were really well established that played for us at scrumhalf.
“There were really a bunch of good nines playing well and sometimes it’s not because one player is not playing well enough or not Springbok class. It’s just because there’s some other guys who’re also playing really well.
“But I think none of us can look past the fact with how well Embrose played this year,” he added. “There’s been some injuries and there’s some guys who lost form and he gathered form, if I can call it that way.
“I’m very happy for him personally and obviously for us, it’s nice to have him on board.
“He gets his opportunity at home with Handré, who he’s played a lot of rugby with. So hopefully that also helps him, at a field he is familiar with.”
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Erasmus also touched on the strong Bulls presence throughout the match 23, with Papier, Pollard and Canan Moodie in the backline, while Cobus Wiese and Ruan Nortjé link up in the second row alongside Wilco Louw and Johan Grobbelaar up front.
“I think Handré can play with most nines and Embrose can play with most 10s, but it is definitely beneficial when the two of them went through to a URC final together,” the Bok boss said.
“The pack, we didn’t necessarily look at Bulls combinations. It was actually just seeing who’s fit first of all, and then who we’d like to see perform well.
“Our average caps I think must be 25 caps, which is not a lot. There’s 11, 12 guys who’ve got less than 10 caps. We will definitely go into this match with a much less experienced team compared to Scotland, so this will be a nice test for a lot of these guys.”
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Photo: Lefty Shivambu/Gallo Images
