Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus says Saturday’s Test against England at Twickenham provides an ideal opportunity to test some new combinations.
Due to the fact that the match falls outside of the international window, European-based players Willie le Roux, Faf de Klerk, Francois Louw and Cheslin Kolbe have not been considered for the clash, while Franco Mostert is also unavailable, as the Lions and Gloucester are still battling to reach an agreement over his services.
In regards to De Klerk’s absence, there is a significant lack of experience in the scrum-half position in particular, with the trio of Embrose Papier, Ivan van Zyl and Louis Schreuder possessing only eight caps between them.
But Erasmus feels the opportunity to test new combinations in the pressured cauldron of an 80,000 capacity Twickenham crowd is an ideal one and will offer his charges a thorough examination.
“Playing against England, under pressure in a full stadium, will be a new experience for some of the players and it will provide me with some good answers,” Erasmus told Sport 24.
“The English are good and physical, they are strong in the mauls and set phases, as well as on defence. They can vary their game and that’s the biggest lesson we learnt from our defeat in Cape Town in June.
“All the players that play in the English Premiership are not available, because the Test is outside the international window. The Japanese players can play, but the French players aren’t available as well.
“When we agreed to this Test match, we knew we were going to be without certain players. But there are some positive spinoffs – not just financially – like getting another Test before the World Cup. With guys like Faf and Willie not available, it does put pressure on us in terms of results.
“In June we played England with an outside centre and two wingers with no caps. We are a bit thin going through a period of not having a lot of experienced scrum-halves. But Ivan and Embrose have been in the system since the beginning of the season, so it’s not a matter of them having to learn everything from scratch.”
When questioned about the lack of experienced number nines in the squad, Erasmus admitted: “We are thin there.
“It’s just one of those cycles that we’re going through where we don’t have a lot of experienced nines.”
Turning his focus once again to Saturday’s clash, he said: “It is conditions that are different to South African conditions and it’s an English team that is desperate, so they will be tested at nine.”