England<\/a> game. It\u2019s a big one, and the first three Test matches. Probably, how things form out there, guys get through it, and guys step up to the mark and, \u2018Wow, this guy\u2019s a Test-match player\u2019.<\/p>\n\u201cBut, the Greatest Rivalry, I think we\u2019ll see the players\u2019 fitness, how do some guys adapt to playing against Scotland, playing against Wales, playing against England, and then say, \u2018This guy\u2019s ready to play New Zealand\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s almost a nice way to see how they can handle the pressure. And I think we\u2019ll find a very desperate New Zealand team.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo no, we haven\u2019t nailed it down, the amount of players. I think we\u2019ll have 36 in the squad most of the time, in the June Test matches, and I think 40 for the Greatest Rivalry.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Kiwis are sure to name a giant squad as well, given, as Erasmus referenced, there are four games against South Africa\u2019s URC club teams on the tour schedule.<\/p>\n
The last tour between the teams was in 1996, the year of the first Tri-Nations Series, which would later become the Rugby Championship. There was nearly a century of tours between the two countries that preceded the inaugural Tri-Nations. Erasmus was asked if he would lean on that history for motivation.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome people forget about things that have happened in the past,\u201d the coach responded.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe last captain that won a series for us (in New Zealand)\u2014what school was Jessie (Kriel) in? I think it was also a captain from Maritzburg College; things like that count. And I think when Jessie ran out (as captain at Eden Park last year), you think about those things, you think about the history, it would be great to have again a captain from there.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t pick Jessie as captain for that reason, obviously, but someone sent me an email that week saying, \u2018Did you know the last captain was also from Maritzburg?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, I think the younger guys who are in the mix, and the younger coaches, they don\u2019t remember those things. But we do.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut you don\u2019t go into that week saying, \u2018Guys, we\u2019re going to do it for 1996, we remember that team\u2019. But then, when it\u2019s done, it\u2019s great memories coming up.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rassie Erasmus and the Springboks management are working through what 2026\u2019s new-look Test calendar demands, what adjustments need…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":504569,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-504568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=504568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504568\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/504569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=504568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=504568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}