Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus has selected “a really strong team” for Friday’s match against World Cup hosts Japan.
In their final warm-up encounter before facing New Zealand in their first match of the tournament on September 21, South Africa will not only look to rewrite history by beating Japan for the first time, but they believe the match will also be a good indication of what they can expect against the All Blacks.
Having lost to Japan in their only match at the last World Cup, Erasmus selected seven players that took part in that encounter.
Three of them will be on the bench, with Beast Mtawarira, Francois Louw and Jesse Kriel expected to come off the wood.
CAUTIOUS: Rassie Erasmus. Photo: Christiaan Kotze/BackpagePix.
Captain Siya Kolisi, Handre Pollard and Pieter-Steph du Toit also played in the 38-34 defeat and are in the run-on XV.
BACK IN ACTION: Siya Kolisi. Photo: Themba Hadebe/AP.
With Erasmus believing Japan will pose a similar threat to that of New Zealand, the Boks are looking to klap twee vliee met een skoot.
The coach, who took his team to a sword-making master yesterday, explains: “We want to prep for New Zealand. But first it’s Japan and they beat us last time, that’s why we picked a really strong team.
“The way Japan play is a lot like New Zealand with their speed and high tempo game. They play a loose kind of game and we expect the same kind of game against New Zealand.”
%%%twitter https://twitter.com/hashtag/StrongerTogether?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#StrongerTogether pic.twitter.com/hujO5yhCm6
— Springboks (@Springboks)
Erasmus, though, says they don’t see Japan as the mini-All Blacks.
He adds: “We played against Argentina and almost lost in South Africa and they are [ranked] No.11. Japan are ninth, so we take Japan very seriously. We don’t think they are small New Zealand, they are big Japan.”
Springboks:
15 Willie le Roux, 14 Cheslin Kolbe, 13 Lukhanyo Am, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Makazole Mapimpi, 10 Handré Pollard, 9 Faf de Klerk, 8 Duane Vermeulen, 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 6 Siya Kolisi (captain), 5 Franco Mostert, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 Malcolm Marx, 1 Steven Kitshoff.
Replacements:
16 Bongi Mbonambi, 17 Tendai Mtawarira, 18 Trevor Nyakane, 19 RG Snyman, 20 Francois Louw, 21 Herschel Jantjies, 22 Frans Steyn, 23 Jesse Kriel.