Rassie Erasmus is planning to round off the Springboks’ November tour with “probably only 24, 25 guys touring with us to Wales”.
Having clocked up wins over Japan, France, Italy and Ireland in London, Paris, Turin and Dublin, the Welsh in Cardiff next Saturday will round off their five-match trip.
However, with the game taking place outside the World Rugby player release window, the South African head coach will cross the Irish Sea with a much-reduced squad due to club demands.
The likes of Thomas du Toit and Boan Venter, the starting props who led the assault on the buckled Irish scrum in Saturday’s 24-13 win, must return to their respective English and Scottish clubs rather than be available for the final Test match of the calendar year.
Juggling act
It will be a juggling act, one that Erasmus wasn’t fully on top of his brief about when quizzed post-game in Dublin as he forgot the names of some of his players.
There will also be some players lost to Japanese clubs as their new season starts next week, and the head coach felt obliged to accede to some release requests as the Japanese helped South Africa out at the start of the month when the November 1 match took place before the beginning of the three-week player release window.
Asked how many players would be absent in Wales from the Springboks squad he had with him in Ireland, he explained: “Quite a few.
“Obviously, all the guys that play in the Premiership (and URC), guys like Thomas, guys like Boan, RG (Snyman), guys like Edwill (van der Merwe) play in URC, Kurt-Lee (Arendse concussion) is obviously out.
“We haven’t mentioned (Aphelele) Fassie, Fassi is out. Yeah, there is a nine that is not available for this game, who goes back. Who is it?
“Grant (Williams) is going back to the Sharks; he must play there. We spoke to our URC friends out in South Africa, so we will only train next week with only 25 players in the group.
“We will assess the injuries tonight [Saturday]. There are quite a couple of guys that must also go back to Japan. Jesse (Kriel) can’t play, and some of the Japanese clubs asked us nicely.
“They helped us out with the Japan match and it was outside the window, and this match is also outside the window – and it is the same with Wales, they have also got a couple of players playing in the Premiership and there is no getting away from Premiership rules, you can’t play in matches outside the window.
“So we will assess our injuries, but I guess there is about 14 or 15 guys who is here currently won’t be available next week. And obviously other guys like Edwill, they will stay there, Grant will go back, there is another one going back, I can’t quite remember who it is now.
“Manie (Libbok) is going back to Japan. He is only just fresh in Japan and the club asked can he join them as their season starts next week, so we will regroup and see. But yeah, probably only 24, 25 guys touring with us to Wales.”
Welsh threat
That lack of Springbok availability could incentivise the Welsh but even if Steve Tandy’s side were to produce a stunning upset, the result won’t be enough to threaten South Africa’s position at the world’s No.1 side.
They currently have a huge buffer between themselves and second-place New Zealand, but Erasmus tried to suggest a loss in Cardiff could cost the Springboks two places on the rankings list at the end of a year where they retained their Rugby Championship title and have won 11 of their 13 Test matches.
“Our aim this year was to try and end in the top four,” said Erasmus modestly in Dublin. “We played Ireland, who are fourth in the world currently.
“So some people might have expected us to win because they are four in the world and we are one, but we still know if we lose to Wales next week, we can drop two places – but being in the top four in world rankings this year was probably the aim for us while rotating.
“We have used 50 players this year, and next year it can be more experimental as December 7 is the World Cup draw and if you are outside the top six, then you might be in a pool of death. Our first goal was to be in the top four so that pool draw can be okay.
“But we are realistic, Australia gave us a shock that first (Championship) match. We lost two matches this year, two matches last year, so we are up in certain areas.
“But losing Ox (Nche) and Jan-Hendrik (Wessels) and all of those guys, and Frans Malherbe will only be ready next June and we had to bring a few youngsters into the mix, so we are getting better in swapping in and out in different positions but a lot of work still to do if we think we can stay at the top.”
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