Rassie Erasmus says the Springboks are shifting gears for the Rugby Championship, with the head coach set to name a more settled and experienced squad after wrapping up a 55-10 win over Georgia in Nelspruit on Saturday.
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The Springboks ran in nine tries to cap a clean sweep of the July schedule, but Erasmus admitted the constant rotation across four matches had disrupted rhythm and execution.
“We’re fairly happy if you look over the four games,” he said. “We scored close to 50 points in each match and apart from the first Italy test defended pretty well.
“Georgia were physical and disruptive but that’s not an excuse for us making so many errors. If we chop and change teams like we have as we’re building squad depth, you’ll lose rhythm.”
Erasmus confirmed a 36-man squad will be named on Tuesday for the start of the Rugby Championship, which kicks off with a clash against Australia at Ellis Park on 16 August.
“Within that squad there’ll be one or two guys that we experiment with, but the bulk of that squad will be experienced players who are suited to the way we want to play,” the Bok mentor said.
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Erasmus also shed some light on flyhalf Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu’s underwhelming performance on Saturday, revealing that the player suffered a hip pointer injury in the warm-up.
“We weren’t quite sure if we should push him through the game, but he wanted to play but that’s not an excuse for the way he kicked at poles,” the Bok coach said.
“He ran it out and we like guys that try things and not just play safe and he’s certainly not of the guys that made the most errors.”
Photo by Anton Geyser/Gallo Images
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