Kriel and Esterhuizen 'deserve their chance'
JUNE SPOTLIGHT: Bok coach Rassie Erasmus will continue his fine balancing act between experimentation and building momentum when he names his team on Thursday.
With a series victory against England already in the bag, Erasmus will be expected to make a number of changes to his team in the bid to give everyone a fair chance in the green and gold ahead of the Rugby Championship this year.
Some of those changes could be in the midfield where Damian de Allende and Lukhanyo Am were the first-choice centres for the first and second Tests.
However, the third Test in Cape Town could be a good chance for Erasmus to test the combination of Andre Esterhuizen and Jesse Kriel against England.
The duo played together before in the Boks’ 20-22 loss to Wales at the beginning of June in Washington D.C.
“You don’t want to go and lose all your momentum because you make 10 changes for the sake of making changes,” Erasmus explained.
“I think where we will make changes is with the World Cup in mind to test a few things and obviously Andre and Jesse are two guys who played well during Super Rugby, but then you will have to see who the fullback will be and who is going to be the wings.
“I wouldn’t say we have a lot of momentum, we’ve only won two games, but we do have a little bit of momentum now and you don’t want to experiment too much so that you lose that momentum.
“Yes, those guys definitely deserve their chance somewhere. If it isn’t this match, then somewhere in the near future.”
Erasmus said the conditions in Cape Town will also play a big role in his selections.
“It is definitely going to be wet on Saturday, it looks like that, so we are going to make a few changes and not just because we already won the series,” he added.
“The weather conditions will play a role and some guys will probably fit in better in the conditions. The whole week looks like it is going to be pretty wet and we want to try a few things and put some guys under pressure, so I wouldn’t say wholesale changes but there will be four or five changes.”
By Warren Fortune
@FortuneWarren
@rugby365com
