Why rotated Springboks could be ‘well-oiled’ as Sir Steve Hansen claims there is no B team
Springboks back Ethan Hooker and an inset of All Blacks head coach Sir Steve Hansen.
Sir Steve Hansen says that the Wallabies won’t be facing a Springboks B team despite Rassie Erasmus making 13 changes to his starting XV.
Eben Etzebeth and Ethan Hooker are the only two players who have retained their starting roles in Perth after helping South Africa defeat the All Blacks in Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry finale in Baltimore.
Sir Steve Hansen believes Springboks don’t have a B team
The remainder of the side is completely changed, with the Springboks boss refreshing his team for the one-off clash against Australia and providing opportunities to those who helped prepare the men in Green and Gold for New Zealand.
While many have dubbed this a Springboks B team, Hansen disagrees and says there is no respite for Les Kiss’ team this weekend.
“Well, the first thought was that Rassie has got plenty of luxury in talent. He’s got plenty of depth,” the former All Blacks head coach said on the Rugby Unity podcast.
“So, I’d be forgetting the idea that it’s an A team, a B team, or a C team. It’s a Springbok team. That’ll be their attitude.
“The guys have been given the opportunity and will be expected, fairly strongly too, I would imagine, to go out there and put in a Springboks-like performance that the country can be proud of and that they can be proud of.
“I don’t think there’s any respite for Australia there. However, I do agree that it will be a little rusty because of the lack of combos, but I would imagine that this group’s been training against the team that’s been playing against the All Blacks for quite some time. So, they should have those combos reasonably well-oiled.”
Ex-Wallabies coach’s verdict on Rassie Erasmus’ selections
Former Wallabies boss Ewen McKenzie predicts that Australia will be competitive but adds that South Africa have an advantage thanks to Erasmus’ selections on the bench.
Malcolm Marx, Ox Nche and Wilco started three of the four Test matches against the All Blacks but have dropped to the bench for the fixture in Western Australia. They are joined by World Cup winners Lood de Jager and Jasper Wiese, while Morne van den Berg, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and Quan Horn will provide an impact in the backline.
“The one problem that the Wallabies have got is that the Springbok bench is outstanding. The quality across that bench that can come into the game later on… they’re all fantastic players that can make a great contribution,” McKenzie said.
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“So I think um the last 20 minutes of the game is going to be interesting; that’ll be where we get sorted out. I think Australia might be quite competitive, but it’s going to be the 80 minutes. The Springboks have got a fair bit and they might go back to their bomb squad – they haven’t been able to do that in recent times. So all credit to the All Blacks in that sense that they’ve disrupted them and even that part of their game hasn’t been what they like. So this might be their opportunity again.
“Australia have gone 6-2 as well. So that’s probably giving you a clue that they’re going to try and play South Africa in the forwards. See how they go. They’re probably backing themselves based on their forward contributions as I’ve said previously on this show, the top six or seven ball carriers in the games all at the moment have been the forwards, not the backs. The inverse of what New Zealand’s been doing. So, they’ll probably play to that.”
