If springbok coach Rassie Erasmus sticks to his tried-and-tested team for the third Rugby Championship match against the Wallabies in Australia next week , he runs the risk of losing the South African rugby public’s faith in him.
Having taken over from Allister Coetzee earlier this year, Erasmus - who also holds the position of Director of Rugby at the South African Rugby Union - was seen by many as the saviour of the country’s rugby.
As it stands, he has been in charge of the Springboks in six outings - winning three.
The big problem is away matches where Erasmus’s Boks have not yet tasted victory.
From the outset, though, Erasmus had a plan to get the Boks ready for next year’s World Cup.
And saying that plan is now in die wiele gery after defeat to Argentina away, will raise a few eyebrows among the national team’s followers.
With only nine Test matches left for the year, surely the plan should be to get the fringe players ready for the World Cup.
A win-at-all-costs mentality, though, might see the coach stick to the likes of Handre Pollard, Francois Louw, Beast Mtawarira, Faf de Klerk and even Willie le Roux.
While the latter two have done well so far in the tournament, there is currently simply no backup.
Therefore, I believe Erasmus should stick to his original plan of giving some of the youngsters in his squad a go in Australasia.
Not only will they get a feel of what it is like to play the big guns away from home, but they will also get a fair shot at proving they belong and can handle the pressures that come with a Bok callup.
Here are some of my proposed changes for the clash against Oz: Damian Willemse in for Le Roux at fullback, Elton Jantjies to regain some lost confidence in place of Pollard, Embrose Papier to start in place of De Klerk to avoid becoming the next Rudy Paige, Marco van Staden in for an ageing Louw and Steven Kitshoff in place of Beast.
Even if you lose on the scoreboard then, you would have gained a lot in experience.