The Springbok players already know who will captain them in their opening Castle Lager Rugby Championship test against Australia next weekend at Loftus Versfeld, but the Boks aren’t sharing that just yet.
Both coach Jacques Nienaber and Director of Rugby Rassie Erasmus spoke about the juggling act the side will follow in the opening two rounds of the Rugby Championship where they will split the squad - with a number of players heading to New Zealand early to overcome jetlag and be ready for the test in Auckland a week later.
Nienaber said that while they knew in their heads who the two squads would be, and the players were also in the loop, changes did take place as injured players returned to the side.
“We have a pretty good idea,” coach Jacques Nienaber said, “and in the players heads they have a pretty good idea. But there are still changes - like last week we weren’t sure if Damian (Willemse) would be ready and this week we know he will be. That changes things in terms of strategies.
“But we will probably only announce that with the team announcement next week because we won’t want the opposition to know who will go where.”
But the Boks won’t name a captain until next week at the team announcement, and Siya Kolisi remains their defacto captain for the World Cup, with a number of senior players available to captain the side in his absence.
The Boks will still decide when the bulk of the players for the Auckland test will fly and will allow them to train against their teammates, who will be preparing for the match against the Wallabies at Loftus Versfeld next weekend.
“The balance will be that we like to have this big squad at training because you can go 15 v 15. The balance will be to send them as late as possible so that the team that will play against Australia will have a proper test in training and preparation week but also sending them early enough so that they can get over jetlag,” Nienaber said.
Erasmus added that three coaches would fly with the side to New Zealand with the rest travelling after the Australia game.
“We’ve made sure we have booked enough places on the Tuesday and the Wednesday flights to make sure the team is not underdone in terms of opposition. So if we are happy on Tuesday then they would fly as soon as possible, so it will either be Tuesday or Wednesday,” he explained.
“We are not going to take the full management team as we are not going to take all 41 players to New Zealand. The first group are flying Tuesday or Wednesday next week. It might not be 13 or 15, it depends on which players can handle playing here and there very well. Some players are built differently and take different loads in games.
“Even the team that flies on Sunday will arrive there on Tuesday and it won’t be the balance of the 41 players. It will be around 30 or 28 depending on what we saw in Australia game and who got injured.
“There will be four of the management group that will stay here. There are three of the coaches that will fly with that team to be ready on that side from the Monday morning to start coaching them. The rest of the management team will be flying on the Sunday.”
The Boks will name their team to face Australia early next week.