Rassie offers promising injury update and explains delaying Boks team announcement

The Springboks are close to confirming the availability of inspirational captain Siya Kolisi and 2025 World Rugby Player of the Year nominee Ox Nche, with their status tentatively upgraded from injured to “niggles” by head coach Rassie Erasmus.

The coach shared the promising update at a Monday afternoon press conference in Johannesburg, where he was also asked about moving his team-naming announcement from his usual Monday slot to Thursday, and about the growing noise over the contrasting speeds of game that South Africa and New Zealand are expected to pursue during the series.

Erasmus’ ploy of naming his teams early in the week has often been cited as ‘mind games’ as it casually surrenders any competitive advantage that may come from unexpected selections, and the coach acknowledged this week that changing the announcement time was an effort to level that playing field.

“I think the announcement only coming on Thursday is respect to New Zealand and knowing how tough this one’s going to be,” Erasmus said. “In this one specifically, we think the less time they have to prepare for our team, the better. It’s no arrogance thing; it’s a respect thing.

He went on to deliver an injury update on his recovering duo: “Siya and Ox, I wouldn’t say they’re injured still; I think it’s niggles. If they get through today, it might be good for us.”

The coach added that no other Springbok players were under an injury cloud ahead of the first of the four-Test series this weekend.

That otherwise clean bill of health will make for some tightly contested selections, especially at No.10, where Handre Pollard, Manie Libbok and Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu are each competing for minutes.

“We’re going to pick two for this weekend,” Erasmus said of his playmakers. “It’s a long series, as you’ve seen both teams have injuries already, so I’m pretty sure all three will play over the next four weeks.”

The All Blacks‘ recent comments about speeding up the game have been met with some resistance in South Africa, with local pundits offering impassioned rebuttals to the idea that a fast game offers more entertainment value than a set-piece-oriented one.

Erasmus, as the man tasked with diffusing the All Blacks’ speed, was more concerned with how effective his opponents are in their game plan.

“I think you can see on their social media, they are advocating this high-intensity, running, multi-phase – nobody can keep up with us. They’re not hiding it; everybody’s talking about it.

“I’ve seen that, we analysed that, it definitely shows that in the stats, and it shows on the scoreboard if you watched the last three games they’ve played.”