Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus will have a lot of eyes on him ahead of Thursday’s team announcement for Saturday’s Test against England.
And two of the positions that will be of interest to Bok fans are scrumhalf and fullback.
Influential England-based players Faf de Klerk and Willie le Roux are both unavailable because the match falls outside of the international window.
Under Rassie, the Boks only took the field twice this year without these men - in the one-off Test against Wales when Curwin Bosch played at fullback and Ivan van Zyl at scrumhalf; and at Newlands against England when Warrick Gelant came in at No.15 for Le Roux.
That match against Wales was Van Zyl’s only start for the Boks, with Embrose Papier warming the bench for De Klerk of late.
Papier, though, has not worn the No.9 Green and Gold jumper yet and this might be his chance.
The fact that Papier played second fiddle to Van Zyl at the Blue Bulls when the Boks returned for Currie Cup duty, might swing the vote in favour of the latter.
Of the battle behind the base, Erasmus tells reporters in the UK: “We are thin there. It’s just one of those cycles that we’re going through where we don’t have a lot of experienced nines.
“Ivan [van Zyl] and Embrose [Papier] have been in our system from the beginning so it’s not like they’re going to have to learn everything from scratch.
“When you run out there, the pressure will be on. It is conditions that are different to South African conditions and it’s an English team that is desperate, so they will be tested at nine.”
Then there’s fullback.
It’s no secret that Erasmus wants to play Damian Willemse at fullback and this would be the perfect time to back the Cape Town youngster.
The English, though, do have a good kicking game and will test Williemse.
Ahead of the World Cup, that is exactly what you want.
The other option would be to bring in veteran fullback Gio Aplon, who will bring you a similar attacking threat coupled with experience.