Victor Matfield predicts that Rassie Erasmus will further test South Africa’s depth during the November Nations Championship fixtures.
The legendary lock says that several young players have put their hands up for selection during the early stages of the United Rugby Championship and Investec Champions Cup seasons and could be called up to the squad for the end-of-year tour.
During Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series against the All Blacks, head coach Erasmus stuck to largely the same matchday 23 for the latter three Tests before making wholesale changes for the meeting with Australia in Perth.
This has left many questioning how the Springboks coaching team will approach the second leg of the Nations Championship with South Africa facing off against Italy, France and Ireland, respectively, before the finals weekend in London.
Springboks’ combinations can get better
Matfield believes that it will be a bit of a mix and match, with the Boks needing to further develop combinations with Erasmus calling up youngsters who he thinks can make an impact at the World Cup in Australia next year.
“There are still some combinations that we can get better,” he said on the Rugby Rivals podcast.
“There are a few young players who stood out in the Champions Cup again; does he give them opportunities?”
However, he hopes that Erasmus doesn’t fall into the trap of giving too many inexperienced players an opportunity at the same time, resulting in a big defeat.
“We have done it a few times in the past before a World Cup where we would send a complete B-side over to Australia, New Zealand, and they always got smashed,” Matfield continued.
“You want these kids coming through who could have a big influence on the World Cup to play with the best players.
“So you only want two or three changes; they get the opportunity to play in that team that understands how to win games, and then they can show what they can do. So I think we’ll see that.”
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Victor Matfield’s prediction
Furthermore, he says that the Springboks leaned into their traditional strengths during the RGR series against New Zealand, after losing the first Test match. This, after South Africa played more expansively in the first two years following the 2023 Rugby World Cup with Tony Brown’s influence as the team’s attack coach clearly evident.
He predicts that Erasmus will want to see the Springboks return to that expansive style of playing during the November internationals, as it is also an area of the Boks’ game that needs attention.
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“The other thing is we really went back to our old DNA in the rivals tour where we were really physical, we were direct, we played the pressure game,” he said.
“I think we might see on the end-of-year tour a bit more of Tony Brown coming in, more expansive and having a go. We still need to grow that part of the game; last year we were almost getting there, and then this year, after that first loss against New Zealand, we just went back to ‘if we need to win a game, this is what we’re going to do’.
“I think Rassie would like us to play a little bit more on the end-of-year tour and just to grow that side of your game as well.”
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