It’s time for Elrigh Louw to grab his chance for the Springboks and make his mark.
And no, Evan Roos has not been thrown away, and will be back in the national side before long.
That’s the message from coach Rassie Erasmus as he prepares to leave for the Castle Lager Rugby Championship along with the squad for their opening two games against Australia in Brisbane and Perth.
Erasmus said the team picked for Australia was with specific goals in mind and would be selected so that the Boks had the option of two strong loose trios for the two tests.
He also clarified that Louw was being given a chance to show his worth against a top nation.
“I think we have two full loose forward trios. Marco and Siya can play six, Pieter-Steph and Ben-Jason can play seven and Kwagga and Elrigh can play eight. Elrigh can also play seven. Certainly Evan is not out of the mix. Prior to the Portugal test match we told the guys - you get a chance here, go out and show your hand.
“There were a few new dogs in the neighbourhood, start lifting your leg and make a mark there. Certainly a few guys did,” he explained.
“Elrigh - we certainly want to experience him against big nations because he was part of our plans always, but he certainly did take a dip in form, and he will admit it himself. We know what Evan can do, and Evan is not thrown away - we still have nine test matches away.
“So like we did against Argentina away last year, we picked a lot of guys and a different team. It is about building squad depth and we know what Evan can do.
“He didn’t have bad games and we now can see he is comfortable in the Springbok setup, and we now can give Elrigh a chance to show what he can do.”
A CHANCE TO IMPRESS
Erasmus also countered the narrative that Roos plays differently for the Stormers than for the Springboks and that is why he has apparently fallen out of favour.
The Boks have given Roos a chance against Wales and Portugal, with Kwagga Smith facing Ireland in two tests and Louw likely to start against Australia.
With Jasper Wiese’s suspension ending ahead of the All Black tests, he is likely to resume his role at eight for those two tests and then the Boks will give others a chance against Argentina.
At least, that seems to be the recipe for now.
“No I don’t think so, on defence it is pretty much the same as it is with the Stormers. Most of the South African teams have the same mindset and systems when it comes to defence.
There may be small tweaks here and there but we are pretty familiar to the way that the Stormers defend with Norman Laker there.
“On attack we have a different attack coach. If it was something like that when Felix (Jones) was the attack coach, it is certainly not something with Tony Brown. It is purely that he has six or seven caps now and Elrigh has a bit less and we are trying to get more caps across the squad. We know what he can do and we have no problem with what he did for us but it is time to give Elrigh also a chance against top tier nations and see what he can do.
“Because the Bulls went the deepest in the URC competition and he was certainly one of the more physical players in that setup.
“There are no prescriptions - none more than what we would have for Elrigh, or Pieter Steph or anyone else. I wouldn’t say we are punching his play in, I would say we are more encouraging Evan to play the way he wants to play and he certainly did. He made a few errors like anyone else who hasn’t got 10 caps under their belt, he would make some errors.”
And with Cameron Hanekom almost recovered from his injury, he will also knock hard at the door for the Boks and could be in the camp sooner than later.
Either way, the shuffling of eights is less of a concern than a strategy to get the best out of the immense talent the Boks currently possess.