Rassie Erasmus has confirmed when he will name the Springboks team to take on the All Blacks at Eden Park.
During the opening two rounds of the Rugby Championship against Australia, the head coach revealed his team on the Monday and Tuesday ahead of the Test matches.
However, he has changed tact for the meeting with New Zealand at their fortress, and has revealed the reasons why.
Speaking to the media on Monday, Erasmus confirmed that he will only be naming his team on Thursday (18h00 NZL, 08h00 SA Time) with Springboks captain Siya Kolisi ‘bracketed’ in the starting XV.
The Boks boss explained that he wants to keep the All Blacks coaches guessing and believes that this week, it is advantageous not to show his hand too early.
Uncertainty around the All Blacks team
Additionally, he and the Springboks coaching team have found it difficult to work out who will be making the All Blacks matchday 23 and believes that Scott Robertson and his team will have a similar issue with South Africa.
“Yeah, it’s a tough one for us,” Erasmus said on the uncertainty on who will be in the All Blacks’ matchday 23.
“That’s why I was honest in saying that’s why we’re only announcing our team on Thursday.
“They are a team that thoroughly analyses and player profiles and teams and we are very unsure on what team they will put out. We are really not sure.
“I guess one can look at the injury list and think they might be in some trouble, but we also have a lot of guys who are unavailable. There will be a little bit of an unknown in both teams going into this match, and I guess by only announcing it on Thursday, it’s a little bit more evened out – that we all have to do a little bit of extra work and guessing.”
Meanwhile, Erasmus was surprised that winger Caleb Clarke was not included in the All Blacks squad after featuring for Auckland on his return from injury last week.
“I know Anton Lienert-Brown played this weekend and so did Caleb Clarke – I thought he’d be in the mix, but I listened to Razor’s comments in the press conference saying that he isn’t,” Erasmus added.
“So it’s a bit of a guess, but whatever team they put out, it’s a hell of a good one and a desperate team.”
Erasmus was asked whether he’d change his team once he saw the All Blacks’ matchday 23.
“No, the players know who plays on Saturday, and there’s one or two guys bracketed with a little niggle like Siya,” he responded.
“I’d rather keep the team to myself until Thursday evening because it just makes it a little bit more difficult to analyse.”
No mind games
He further explained that there was no mind games behind the decision to move the team announcement from the usual Tuesday slot.
“People see everything as mind games. But internally, the guys know on Sunday evening already who will play and who is bracketed with whom,” he said.
“You will never be able to lie to a player and say, ‘Listen, on Saturday morning, we are going to change the team’. Like Jean-Luc du Preez, who withdrew on the Saturday morning, and Willie, who withdrew on the Friday.
“It will be very tough for a player to say to him, ‘Pretend you’re playing and now you must motivate the guy and now you must lie around with all the other guys in the team’.
“Sometimes we feel that it does help if there isn’t speculation on social media and in the media, and we announce the team early, and it’s out there and the speculation is gone, and the players can focus.
“But then you get to games like this, and Razor probably feels the same, where it can be beneficial to have them only know our team on Thursday.
“It’s what we think is best for the team and what might give us a little bit of an edge. You know it’s very seldom that we change the team purposefully on a Saturday morning – I think it’s happened once.”