Rassie calls up the cavalry for France
FRANCE TEST: ERASMUS SELECTS HIS STRONGEST SIDE Boks out to regain momentum after Twickenham defeat.
Opting for experience, Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus said yesterday that the national team desperately needed to regain the momentum they lost against England at Twickenham last week.
Erasmus made just three changes to his side for the clash against France in Paris tomorrow.
Franco Mostert replaces the injured Eben Etzebeth at lock, while fullback Willie le Roux and scrumhalf Faf de Klerk return for Damian Willemse and Ivan van Zyl respectively.
“We need to get some momentum back and there’s nothing better to give that to you than a few old hands, so it’s good to have the experienced players back,” Erasmus said.
The return of Mostert is expected to help solve the Boks’ lin- eout woes, while Erasmus said he didn’t want to take any gambles with Etzebeth’s foot injury.
“Franco has started in eight of our 11 Tests this year, and he starts with Pieter-Steph du Toit who is obviously also a good option to move to loose forward later in the match,” Erasmus said.
“We believed it would be better not to rush Eben back as we still have two Tests left on the tour after the match against France.”
While he had apparently toyed with the idea, Erasmus decided not to rest captain Siya Kolisi, nor to move Duane Vermeulen back to his preferred position at No 8.
On the bench, the names of prop Vincent Koch, wing Cheslin Kolbe and flank Francois Louw have been added.
“Francois is a player who is very good on the ground, while Cheslin knows the French conditions and Vincent plays for Saracens in the United Kingdom,” Erasmus said.
Koch took the place of Wilco Louw on the bench, while Francois Louw came in for Lood de Jager, and with Embrose Papier being retained as the back-up No 9, there was no place for Van Zyl.
Erasmus said, however, that he had not dropped the players because they performed poorly last week, but rather because he was looking for experience.
“I thought Damian and Ivan did very well last week against England, but you need as much experience as possible playing away from home,” he said.
Flyhalf Handré Pollard needs just one point to reach 300 career points in Test rugby.
Should he score 14 points or more in this Test, Pollard would surpass Naas Botha’s career record of 312, which would move him up to fourth position in the all-time points scoring list for South Africa.