{"id":345636,"date":"2025-08-15T04:34:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T04:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/345636\/"},"modified":"2025-08-15T04:34:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T04:34:11","slug":"joe-schmidt-echoes-rassie-erasmus-as-selection-change-teased","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/345636\/","title":{"rendered":"Joe Schmidt echoes Rassie Erasmus as selection change teased"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wallabies head coach Joe Schmidt has copied Springboks counterpart Rassie Erasmus in teasing a potential selection change to his initial 23-man squad.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The outgoing Schmidt has already been forced into a late change, with Ben Donaldson forced to drop out of the squad through injury and\u00a0Nick Champion de Crespigny coming onto their new 6:2 bench; however, that could just be a stopgap if Schmidt\u2019s comments are anything to go by.<\/p>\n

His comments follow Erasmus\u2019 words on Monday, where he hinted at a possible selection change to bring lock RG Snyman onto the bench in place of a back should the Wallabies opt to deploy a 6:2 split.<\/p>\n

\u2018We\u2019ll make a final decision at our captain\u2019s run\u2019<\/p>\n

While Western Force back-rower\u00a0Champion de Crespigny, who made his Test debut in the series opener against the British and Irish Lions last month, is currently in the 23-man squad for the clash at Ellis Park, Schmidt detailed the other alternative options available to him ahead of the game on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur original split was 5:3, but Ben Donaldson pulled out right at the end of training today. He\u2019s currently out of the mix, so we\u2019ve adjusted it to what we think now, but we could adjust again, just because it\u2019s only just happened. We have a lot of faith in\u00a0Nick Champion de Crespigny; he had a very good game in the first Test against the British and Irish Lions, and he is certainly one option.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo get our coverage in the back line is another option for us; we\u2019ve got a couple of options there. Carlo Tizzano is another guy who was part of a 6:2 split against the Lions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was literally a 5:3 split on the bench until the second-last play in training today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wallabies team: Joe Schmidt takes huge James O\u2019Connor gamble while bench split could force late Springboks change<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Wallabies team: Winners and losers as Joe Schmidt stocks up on \u2018prime Aussie beef\u2019 but rolls the dice after \u2018hammer blow\u2019<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

He also offered a definitive deadline as to when he would make that final call on his squad.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve adjusted there to where we think it is at the moment, but we\u2019ll make a final decision at our captain\u2019s run tomorrow. It wasn\u2019t worth putting Ben into the group because he\u2019s not available now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rassie mind games?<\/p>\n

Schmidt\u2019s comments regarding a possible squad change echoed the words of Boks counterpart Erasmus in the week, who initially opted to deploy a 5:3 split, with the Boks boss confirming RG Snyman could crack a spot in the 23 instead.<\/p>\n

These comments could also be counted as mind games ahead of the Test, something Erasmus is known to use. Schmidt, however, insists his focus has been solely on his team in the build-up.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve worked with Rassie and coached against him, but I don\u2019t focus too much on that.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a group that we\u2019ve built over the last year or so. This time last year we got a couple of lessons from South Africa,\u00a0and we like to think we\u2019re building away and are a lot more focused on us.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0Wallabies team: Five takeaways as \u2018big boppers\u2019 picked to take Springboks on \u2018at their own game\u2019 while \u2018bold\u2019 James O\u2019Connor return points to wider depth issue<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wallabies head coach Joe Schmidt has copied Springboks counterpart Rassie Erasmus in teasing a potential selection change to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":345637,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[186,225,90462,60265,12,4151,33131,2196,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-345636","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-home-page","10":"tag-internationals","11":"tag-joe-schmidt","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-rugby","14":"tag-rugby-championship","15":"tag-south-africa","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115030921323373704","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=345636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345636\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/345637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}