Wallabies star takes cheeky dig at Rassie Erasmus on early Springboks team announcements: ‘We’ll wait’
Wallabies winger Harry Potter has taken a sly dig at Rassie Erasmus ahead of Australia’s clash with the Springboks in Perth.
South Africa’s head coach named his team for the showdown on Tuesday already, making 13 changes to the starting XV that secured a 3-1 series victory over the All Blacks in Baltimore.
Erasmus has made a habit of naming his teams early in the week, doing so during Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry, but at the same time, the head coach has made late alterations.
Most notably doing so for Test Two in Cape Town when on the Monday, he named Kurt-Lee Arendse and Handre Pollard in the starting XV; however, on the eve of the game, Arendse was replaced by Cheslin Kolbe, who managed to get through the week’s training, while Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu took over from Pollard, who sustained an injury in training.
We will wait and see
Then, an hour before kick-off, Erasmus controversially decided to switch his starting front row with the one named on the bench.
Speaking ahead of the match against the Springboks, Potter took a cheeky dig at the head coach when he was asked whether it was advantageous to know who you are lining up against so far in advance.
“Well, we’ll wait for the 23 to be absolutely confirmed,” the Wallabies winger joked.
“But I suppose it allows you to know your opposition and get a bit of an idea of what we’re coming up against.
“There’s been a lot of focus on ourselves as well. We’ll be working on ourselves and making sure we come out firing.”
While the team Erasmus named on Tuesday is completely different to the one that tackled the All Blacks, Potter is still expecting a tough challenge in Perth with several World Cup winners in the mix.
“I’d say they picked the team to win the game. I haven’t counted them, but there is certainly plenty of World Cup winners in that team,” he said.
“They’ve had a big four weeks, and they’ll be picking a team, I suspect, that is a bit fresher and has a good bench as well, and they’ll come out firing.
“So yeah, I think they picked a very good team and certainly plenty of experience.”
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Aerial battle
One area of the game where South Africa clearly got the upper hand over the All Blacks was in the air, with the likes of Hooker, Kolbe, Damian Willemse and Arendse wreaking havoc for the likes of Will Jordan, Leroy Carter, Damian McKenzie and Josh Moorby.
Potter is expecting the Boks’ approach to be no different this week.
“It might be slightly different personnel this week, but Hooker and Van der Merwe are both good in the air,” the speedster said.
“We think we’ve been doing quite well in that area as well; we probably had some off games, maybe against Argentina. I certainly think it’s going to be an even bigger threat.
“I thought Argentina chased really well and had some have got some world class threats in the air. It’s going to be a step up this week in the air, but our preparation has been focused on that for sure.”
Jeremy Williams on facing the Springboks
The same applies to the battle up front as South Africa flexed their dominance in the driving maul, with Wallabies lock Jeremy Williams raring to get stuck in.
“It’s an awesome challenge. The Springboks are a really experienced team and have been such a successful team. It’s going to be awesome for us and our pack to go up against them,” the Western Force star said.
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“It’s awesome to be back home and catching up with the boys that are here, and a few of the coaches have been in during the week as well. So, it’s awesome.”
Williams kept an eye on the series between the Springboks and All Blacks and is well aware of the former’s driving maul threat.
“Obviously, it was a really physical series. We saw them, especially in the forwards, really drive at lineout time and were quite successful with their maul, so that’s something that we’re focusing on this week,” he remarked.
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