Rassie Erasmus reveals Springboks were ‘tempted’ to select Handre Pollard but explains why Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu needed to start
Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu of South Africa and an inset of Springboks head coach Rassie Erasmus.
Rassie Erasmus says that it wasn’t an easy decision to stick with a consistent team selection for the second match against Argentina, but he has explained why it was needed.
South Africa have a similar-looking side for a third week in a row, with the coaches making minor tweaks to the matchday 23, mostly due to injury.
The lack of preparation time between the two fixtures, with both teams arriving in London on Monday, led to the call to back cohesion, but for a player like Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, it is essential for him to try to build on his outrageous shift in Durban, Erasmus confirmed.
Temptation to select Handre Pollard
With the Rugby Championship still on the line, there was understandably a temptation to rotate the 23-year-old fly-half and replace him with the experienced match-winner Handre Pollard, who has proven time and time again that he has the temperament to produce in the clutch matches, having led the Springboks to back-to-back Rugby World Cup titles.
Speaking to the media after naming his team on Tuesday, Erasmus was asked whether it was an easy decision to back largely the same team that hammered both the All Blacks and Los Pumas. The head coach’s response was an empathic “No, it wasn’t easy.”
“We have four changes in the team and then a guy like Ox Nche missed out last week, Bongi Mbonambi was away with some family illness, Grant Williams was injured, and Jesse Kriel is a change with what Argentina bring in terms of the back line speed and the way they really open up the game.
“So we would love to have given Handre a chance, and obviously Franco is not here – the same with Faf and Mapimpi. We would have loved to do that, but we thought that, with only two days of training and possibly just two training sessions, you can’t change too much. That played a big role.
“We think of it as we are a squad of 40-odd players who can interchange, but with just two days of training, that wasn’t too easy to do.”
Rassie Erasmus: ‘This is definitely not the strongest Springboks team’
Nurturing Sacha’s talent
Even though Feinberg-Mngomezulu scored a hat-trick of tries in Durban, slotted eight conversions and two penalties, selecting the experienced Pollard for the title-decider would raise an eyebrow or two but would be a completely understandable decision.
But Erasmus explained that it is crucial for the youngster’s development that he gets the opportunity to back up that performance, even if he fails to put in a tidy shift.
The head coach detailed the developmental journey the Stormers star has undergone with the Boks, dating back to 2022, and says that they continue to build his confidence and nurture his talent with the help of the players in the squad.
“If you take it a little while back, when we got him into the Springboks mix, we played him in two SA ‘A’ games while we were touring in Ireland, and he played against Bristol and Munster before he joined us for a little bit and then we played him against tier two nations, and then we played him against Ireland,” Erasmus said.
“So we’re trying to build him up, and fortunately, it’s not him that makes the big hype about himself; if he did, he wouldn’t stay in the squad for long.
“By giving him another chance in the game like this, I’m telling you straight up, it was very tempting to put Handre Pollard for us as coaches but then, he is going to learn a lot from this match, during this week we only have two training sessions, so he needs to keep his head down understand our plan because sometimes a game like that [in Durban] puts more pressure on you in the next game.
“So we’re putting him through his paces and experiencing this pressure, whether he does well or not, he’ll be a better player afterwards. So we tend to do it slowly, but have a nice security like Manie [Libbok] on the bench.
“Then also obviously guys like Andre Esterhuizen, Damian Willemse, and Tony Brown helping him during the week, and then obviously he played off a great platform by the forwards, I really thought he had front foot ball, but if Argentina disrupt us there, then the pressure will go on to him.
“He is 23, an interesting fact is that a World Cup has never been won by a fly-half who is younger than 25, so he’s got some learning to do, but he’s putting his head down and he’s working really hard.”
Wary of getting ahead of themselves
After two hammering victories, there is a threat of the Springboks being overconfident for the finale in London, but Erasmus isn’t too concerned about that happening.
“History has shown that when we lost 57-0 to New Zealand in 2017, the next weekend the difference was just two points,” he explained.
“We know how quickly things can turn around. We lost to New Zealand by seven points in Auckland, and the next week we gave 40.
“Luckily it’s not the players who are writing themselves up and making a big fuss about themselves, it’s people and it’s great and we love the support and we appreciate the media on what they do, but the reality is you’re going to play against an Argentinian team that will be hurting and we know when we’ve been hurting, how to pitch up the next week.
“Also having players like Eben, Pieter-Steph, Siya, and Ox, guys that have a lot of experience, I don’t think we’ll fall into the trap of thinking we all of a sudden we are the business. It was far from a perfect game last week, there were brilliant performances but I don’t think if we lose this game it would not be because we got ahead of ourselves – that we will make sure of.”
