Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus has explained the selection of Cobus Wiese at No 8 ahead of Evan Roos for Saturday’s Test against Georgia.
Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus has explained the selection of Cobus Wiese at No 8 ahead of Evan Roos for Saturday’s Test against Georgia.
Wiese will make his first Test start at Mbombela Stadium, in the absence of his older brother Jasper.
Jasper, who started at the back of the scrum against Italy in Port Elizabeth last week, was on Tuesday handed a four-match suspension following a red card for foul play.
That opened the door for Cobus, who made his Test debut off the bench in that match, to earn a starting berth ahead of Roos, another replacement last weekend, who falls out of the match 23.
Evan has eight or nine Test caps, but we also want to make sure that we’re building depth at No 8. We’ve lost Elrigh [Louw] and Ben-Jason [Dixon], Duane [Vermeulen] retired a couple of years ago, and now Jasper is out with a ban again.
“So we want to see what a guy like Cobus can do at 8. The door is definitely not closed for anybody, but we’d like to see how Cobus goes. We have a good feeling – he’s another lineout option too.”
Saturday’s Test will also mark captain Siya Kolisi’s first appearance of the international season after he missed the Barbarians match and the Italy series with neck and Achilles niggles.
“We would have loved to play him in Gqeberha – that’s his hometown – and it was tempting to push him a week too early,” said Erasmus. “We feel it was the right decision [to hold him back] and now he’s 100% fit. He’s our captain and he never left the group even during rehab.”
The Boks will field a brand-new front row, with Boan Venter, Marnus van der Merwe and Neethling Fouche all set to make their Test debuts.
“We know the Georgians love scrumming – a lot of them play in France – and we want our guys to feel what that kind of rugby is like,” said Erasmus. “We’re not throwing anyone to the wolves. They’ve trained against Ox [Nche], Malcolm [Marx] and Vincent [Koch] all week, so they’ve felt the heat.”
Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu gets a start at flyhalf, while Handre Pollard has been named among the replacements.
“It would have been good to start Sacha last week, but it was Willie’s 100th and we wanted to give him that opportunity,” said Erasmus. “[Scrumhalf] Grant [Williams] was also really good last week, and Sacha only got 20-25 minutes, so we want to give him a proper shot to close out a game. If it flows the way we expect, I think he’ll enjoy the moment.”
Erasmus added that the Boks are continuing to experiment with different combinations during this four-match international window.
“We’re not dropping guys – we’re rotating,” he said. “We’ve got 46 players in the group and some will leave after this game to prepare for the Rugby Championship. We’re trying to win now, but also build for the future.”
