The Springboks and Wallabies will be playing Test matches outside of the official World Rugby international window this weekend, but Australia\u2019s fixture has proven far more controversial in the public\u2019s eye.<\/p>\n
This is because Joe Schmidt has been unable to select his two PREM-based stars, who were central to the team\u2019s successes this year, Exeter\u2019s Tom Hooper and Len Ikitau.<\/p>\n
In stark contrast, every single one of the men selected in Steve Borthwick\u2019s matchday 23 is contracted to PREM Rugby outfits, with the RFU paying off the clubs to have access to the players at an earlier date, despite the league being paused for a month.<\/p>\n
Adding to the Wallabies\u2019 struggles, James O\u2019Connor is also unavailable, along with powerhouse lock Will Skelton, with all the players mentioned omitted from Australia\u2019s touring squad.<\/p>\n
For the Springboks<\/a>, Rassie Erasmus is unable to select tighthead Thomas du Toit, who is contracted to the PREM Rugby club Bath, which has resulted in a Test debut for rookie prop Zachery Porthern against Japan.<\/p>\n Rassie \u2018unchallenged\u2019 by regulations<\/p>\n Securing the release of overseas-based players has proven to be tricky waters to navigate in recent years, hence why so many nations remain reluctant to pick stars not plying their trade on home soil, and Barbarians teams are far less star-studded than they once were.<\/p>\n However, with Rugby Australia now open-minded and loosening the shackles that once restricted Wallabies<\/a> coaches around selecting overseas-based players, they must take a few pages out of the Springboks\u2019 notebook on how to handle foreign clubs.<\/p>\n It\u2019s worth noting that while Du Toit is unavailable to the Boks this week, the same is not true for Leinster lock RG Snyman, who will start against Japan while SA Rugby has repeatedly been able to negotiate with the Japanese clubs that South African players are free to play out of the Test windows. They are not required to do so and can enforce World Rugby regulation nine, but relationships with SA Rugby and JRLO look to be so strong that it\u2019s almost a non-starter, whilst Australia had issues with Marika Koroibete and Samu Kerevi previously.<\/p>\n Erasmus<\/a> touched on the subject after naming his team to face Japan at Wembley, where he detailed that it was not difficult to piece together a team to face the Brave Blossoms and that they had planned this fixture long in advance to get minutes into the legs of players who are contracted to Japanese clubs.<\/p>\n \u201cIt wasn\u2019t a big challenge because we organised this match against Japan for the guys who play in the Japanese league, because they wouldn\u2019t have played a lot of rugby if they didn\u2019t play a lot of Test matches for us, and this fixture was organised for them,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n \u201cThe plan was always to get these guys because we found in the past that when we go on the end-of-year tour, when we played Ireland and France and teams like that, we had a bit of a slow start because some of our players who were based in Japan hadn\u2019t really played a lot of rugby, and that\u2019s why this fixture was here.<\/p>\n \u201cThe only guy that\u2019s not been picked that probably could have been picked is Pieter-Steph du Toit, who plays in Japan, because we pick players from all over the world, we totally understand the logistics around the different protocols and different competitions, and when we start planning our season, we know that already.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Welsh Test match at the end of the year will also be a bit of a challenge because there are URC fixtures on for some of our franchises, even on that specific weekend. On the other hand, it\u2019s also a positive that we still can put a pretty strong team out there. Players like Eben [Etzebeth], Canan [Moodie], and Damian [Willemse] are not playing.<\/p>\n \u201cThen there is Faf [de Klerk], who is not even in this group because we want him to get some game time in the Japanese league, because he would not have been in the mix for this specific game. I can probably name quite a lot of players, but I don\u2019t want to let it sound like I\u2019m moaning. So, we\u2019re fairly happy that this is what we wanted to try and achieve. Now, the job is to try to win the match.\u201d<\/p>\n Rassie Erasmus shakes \u2018dictator\u2019 tag selecting rookie whom he has \u2018probably spoken 100 words to\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n