Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus has explained why Junior Boks captain Riley Norton was called up ahead of the more experienced JJ van der Mescht. LINDIZ VAN ZILLA reports.
Norton was pulled from the SA U20 squad that left for Georgia on Monday to defend their Junior World Championship crown after earning a place in the Springboks’ 46-man Nations Championship squad.
The 20-year-old Norton played the full 80 minutes in the Boks’ 80-31 win against the Barbarians in Gqeberha and impressed with his all-round game.
Van der Mescht, meanwhile, came off the bench to help the Northampton Saints beat the Exeter Chiefs in the English Premiership at Twickenham.
Erasmus stressed that the 27-year-old Van der Mescht’s omission was not a reflection of his quality.
“We all think JJ is a wonderful player. It’s not to say that JJ is not a player for the future, but what we do currently probably suits what Riley gives us.”
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The Bok coach explained that the two locks brought very different attributes.
“One player is a lineout caller who is very athletic around the park. The other is a bruiser who plays very direct. It depends on what you need for a specific Test match.”
Van der Mescht was part of a Bok virtual alignment camp earlier in the year and Erasmus said it was different to Norton who the Bok coaches could look at first-hand.
“Our interaction with JJ was virtual or contacting the club and monitoring his stats,” Erasmus explained.
“Riley is totally different. He’s in our system and JJ’s been away for a really long time.
“Riley knows our systems really well because he comes through our structures.
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“And at the end of the day, we look at what we need in the team and we didn’t want to bring somebody in and then not utilise him.
“Hopefully in future, when we need somebody like that, we can press his number and get him into the squad.”
Photo: Anton Geyser/Gallo Images
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