{"id":146308,"date":"2025-11-21T11:26:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T11:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/146308\/"},"modified":"2025-11-21T11:26:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T11:26:10","slug":"i-must-admit-im-waking-up-thinking-shouldnt-we-be-going-7-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/146308\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I must admit I’m waking up thinking, shouldn’t we be going 7\/1?’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Rassie Erasmus admits he\u2019s been second-guessing his selections for the Springboks\u2019 heavyweight showdown with Ireland<\/a> this weekend, wondering whether he should have added extra ammunition to the bomb squad for the Test.<\/p>\n

The coach selected five specialist forwards on the bench for the Dublin showdown, but with bulking hybrid Andre Esterhuizen<\/a> in the No.21 jersey, giving the benefit of both a 5\/3 and a 6\/2 bench split.<\/p>\n

But Eramsus says he woke up on Thursday morning with a feeling he may have been better selecting seven forwards and just one back on the bench. That decision was influenced by the independent judiciary process involving Franco Mostert<\/a> following his red card against Italy<\/a> last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis morning, I must admit I\u2019m waking up and thinking, \u2018shouldn\u2019t we be going 7\/1?\u2019,\u201d the coach revealed when naming the team on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith Tuesday night Franco\u2019s thing, and last night, Lood\u2019s thing, it buggered up the training sessions and stuff if you bracket this guy with this guy with this guy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a few guys with niggles, and obviously I don\u2019t want to say now, exactly who, because we\u2019re going into our 14th match of this season. But I\u2019m just glad that if one of our guys does go down in one of the training sessions that are left, we were pretty thin at lock.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut then even this morning, chatting to the other coaches and saying, \u2018Maybe this is a game to go 7\/1\u2019. I\u2019m not quite sure what Ireland will go with.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we\u2019re confident in the protocols and the process that has followed and were followed. I sat in and listened to most of those things, and I totally understand how they got to Franco and to Lood\u2019s end result. Somewhere, a mistake was made, but it can be rectified; fantastic, we all believe in the system.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Head-to-Head <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Last 5 Meetings<\/p>\n

Average Points scored<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The other selection question to emerge from Thursday\u2019s team naming also centred around the second row, where RG Snyman<\/a> will bring up his 50th Test match, but do so off the bench.<\/p>\n

Erasmus has a history of starting players in milestone Test matches, and admitted he expected to have to answer for the decision to keep Snyman in the impact unit this time around.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought that question was going to come, and it\u2019s a valid one,\u201d he said. \u201cIt would have been lovely to let him start the match, and he also loves to start; he loves to play as long as he can. Most players do.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe knows his role off the bench. We did have a quick chat, \u2018Listen, it\u2019s your 50th game, do you mind playing off the bench?\u2019 He said, \u2018No problem.\u2019 He totally understands.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith two of the other locks unavailable and one injured, you know he\u2019s obviously going to be in the team, and that is first and foremost what he\u2019s grateful for. I guess he\u2019ll run out in front, and then he\u2019ll go to the bench, which will feel a bit weird. But he\u2019s not worried sacrificing that for the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, it would have been lovely to start him, but I think it\u2019s best for the team for him to play off the bench.\u201d<\/p>\n

The coach also reacted to three of his players, Pieter-Steph du Toit<\/a>, Malcolm Marx<\/a>, and Ox Nche<\/a>, earning nominations for the World Rugby Player of the Year. France<\/a> speed demon Louis Bielle-Biarrey<\/a> completes the list of 2025 nominees.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are happy for them. We tend to focus on the things that we can control, and that is probably mostly the scoreboard,\u201d Erasmus said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes these awards get handed out, and you don\u2019t quite understand how and how they get to it. But we are very proud of those guys. Even if they don\u2019t get it, at least they were nominated.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess the way we play on Saturday, we must try to support them and help them to get closer to that.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re very thankful to whoever it is who nominated them, and hopefully the boys can make it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rassie Erasmus admits he\u2019s been second-guessing his selections for the Springboks\u2019 heavyweight showdown with Ireland this weekend, wondering…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":146309,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":{"0":"post-146308","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-new-zealand","9":"tag-newzealand","10":"tag-nz","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}