Rassie Erasmus' brutally honest admission about Italy clash

Changes were predicted and expected to the South African starting XV that will face Italy in Torino on Saturday.

However, the 11 alterations to the side that overpowered France last week caught most pundits by surprise.

Inspirational captain Siya Kolisi is one of the players backing up.

The other players who retained their places in the starting team are Boan Venter (prop), Kurt-Lee Arendse (wing) and Damian Willemse (fullback).

Erasmus opted for the same bench except for Kwagga Smith (loose forward), who returns to the squad in place of Johan Grobbelaar, who was promoted to the starting lineup.

Erasmus had a perfectly logical explanation for fielding an almost entirely new team against the Azzurri.

“We have learnt our lessons from the past,” Erasmus said in his brutally frank response to the question.

“In the World Cup, when we beat France [29-28 in the quarter-final], we named the same team to play England [a week later] and we were very flat in that [semifinal] game.

“We had to grind out a win in that [England] game.”

Erasmus said he was not going make the same mistake after last week’s emotionally-charged 32-17 win over Les Bleus in Stade de France.

Fixture

Internationals

Italy

14 - 32

Full-time

South Africa

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“That game [against France] took a lot out of the players,” he said.

“We returned to our hotel at 1am the Sunday, by 4am we headed to the airport and arrived here in Turin late afternoon on the Sunday. Our rooms were not yet ready and we had to wait in the team room.”

He said he deliberately opted for players who have not played much yet.

“It is out of respect for Italy, rather than just rotation,” Erasmus said. “The bulk of the guys who will face Italy on Saturday played less than 40 minutes [on tour] or not at all.”

Fullback Damian Willemse and left wing Kurt-Lee Arendse are the two in Saturday’s starting XV with the highest match minutes on tour. Even captain Siya Kolisi only played the first half in Paris.

Loose forwards Marco van Staden and Ben-Jason Dixon will feature for the first time on tour.

“We can’t expect the older players, after last Saturday’s bruising encounter, to deliver the same quality performance a week later,”Erasmus added.

“The challenge is now for the younger players, with fewer caps, to tackle this great Italian team that beat Australia so easily last week.

“We will learn a lot about these players in what I expect to be a close game.”