Coach Rassie Erasmus says veteran scrumhalf Faf de Klerk remains firmly in the Springboks’ plans, even though he’s not part of the current touring squad.
Speaking ahead of Saturday’s Test against Japan at Wembley, Erasmus explained that De Klerk’s absence is part of a broader plan to give him game time with his club, the Yokohama Canon Eagles, ahead of the new Japan Rugby League One season.
“Faf is definitely part of our plans,” Erasmus said. “We just felt that it would be better for him to get regular minutes at his club rather than sitting out during this window. They’ve got four warm-up games lined up this month, and he’ll benefit more from that.”
Canon face Kyuden Voltex on Sunday, followed by clashes against the Panasonic Wild Knights (15 November), Ricoh Black Rams (22 November) and Urayasu D-Rocks (29 November).
De Klerk featured in just 11 of their 18 matches last season, while teammate Jesse Kriel – who starts at outside centre for the Boks this weekend – turned out 16 times.
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Erasmus also pointed out that the clash against Japan, which falls outside the official Test window, was partly organised to help the Japan-based Boks get much-needed game time.
“Unless they’ve been playing regularly for us, the guys in Japan wouldn’t have had much rugby recently,” Erasmus said. “In previous end-of-year tours, against teams like France and Ireland, it sometimes felt like we started slowly because the Japanese-based players hadn’t played much. This time, we wanted to fix that.”
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Erasmus’ 23-man squad for the Wembley Test includes nine Japan-based players – seven in the starting XV and two on the bench – underlining the growing influence of the Japanese league on the Bok setup.
The Bok coach added that flanker Pieter-Steph du Toit, who wasn’t considered this week, and tighthead prop Thomas du Toit, who wasn’t released by Bath, are both in the frame for next Saturday’s Test against France, while fullback Damian Willemse is expected to recover from his thigh injury in time.
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As for the tour itself, Erasmus made it clear that selections will be dictated by what gives the team the best chance of winning each Test.
“It doesn’t make sense to lose matches because you rotate,” he said. “We slipped up twice this year – against Australia [at Ellis Park] and New Zealand [at Eden Park] – and we learned from that. Continuity builds confidence. There will, however, be some changes from Test to Test.”
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Photo: Hannah Peters/Getty Images
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