Rassie Erasmus explains Springboks’ unusual team announcement

Coach Rassie Erasmus has explained why the Springboks decided to publicly announce their team to play the All Blacks on Thursday as opposed to earlier in the week. It’s become routine for the Boks to name their 23 on Tuesdays but they went in another direction this time.

As media waited for assistant coach Daan Human and backrower Elrigh Louw to walk into the press conference on Monday, the Boks confirmed a change in their schedule. The world champions wouldn’t reveal their team until later than expected.

The Springboks were well within their rights to hold off, with World Rugby requiring teams to announce their matchday 23 at least 48 hours before a Test. That being said, this scheduling change still came as a bit of a surprise.

This update comes one week on from a bit of team selection drama with the Boks initially leaving dual World Cup winner Eben Etzebeth out of their 23. Etzebeth was believed to be ruled out with an injury but he was later named on the bench after being cleared to play.

New Zealand announced their team at about 7 am (SAST) on Thursday with coach Scott Robertson fronting the press about 20 minutes later. South Africa followed about two hours later, which was planned, which gave Erasmus a chance to explain the delayed announcement.

“The thing is, we don’t always want to upset the media. We thought about announcing it on a Tuesday, it’s better for everybody, for us as a team, because we announce it at eight o’clock (on) Mondays internally.” Erasmus told reporters.

“If you announce it on Tuesday, we felt all the speculation is out there – people can write about personal profiles and why we pick teams and give you a little bit more of an angle. (But) we’ve got nothing to hide.

“The Eben case, I really don’t understand why people don’t understand that. The guy was injured on Monday, he went for X-rays, they said it would probably be a 10-day week thing and then he just trained on a Monday and that’s the only reason why we did change the team on a Tuesday.

“For this specific team, let’s announce it on Thursday then hopefully everyone’s happy. Then next week we’ll do our Tuesday thing again.”

The Springboks have made seven changes to their starting side this week, which includes two positional changes. Two-time Rugby World Cup winners Etzebeth, Handre Pollard and Willie le Roux have all been recalled into the First XV for the second Test against the All Blacks.

But, when the team was announced, most fans would’ve likely looked straight at the backrow. Captain Siya Kolisi was in doubt for this clash after suffering what appeared to be a facial fracture during last weekend’s 31-27 win at Emirates Airline Park.

Kolisi will start at flanker, though. The skipper joins Pieter-Steph du Toit and Jasper Wiese in a star-studded backrow which will have their work cut out for them against their opponents Wallace Sititi, Sam Cane and Ardie Savea.

“He had two options. Again, I don’t want to sound like a medical doctor because I am not,” Erasmus explained about Kolisi’s injury.

“One is it has to be reset. It’s a nose fracture… you can either get it placed back now, then he’s out for three weeks, or the doc says he can wait two weeks and then put it back in place.

“The massive thing about this game, not just for The Rugby Championship, for us playing the All Blacks here at the Cape Town stadium is a big one and everyone wants to play.

“… Siya himself wanted the option to play now and get it reset in two weeks’ time.”