Just six days separate Friday night’s big Nations Championship clash with France in Paris from their rout of Italy but that is no problem for Rassie Erasmus and his Springboks.
Asked at the team announcement press conference if he was perhaps taking a gamble in effectively fielding the same team in both matches, Erasmus pointed to several factors that made his policy of continuity in selection for this one not only possible but also advisable.
There has been just one change to the team that started the 66-7 win over Italy, with Thomas du Toit moving to the bench and Wilco Louw moving into the run on side.
That rotation aside it is the same team, with the bench lining up the same too but for the return of the experienced Cobus Reinach as the back-up scrumhalf for Grant Williams.
“Firstly the game against Italy was not the most physical game, and the guys also do not have bad minutes at the moment (they have not been overplayed),” said Erasmus.
“There are a few guys who had not played in a while before the Italy game. Damian de Allende, Jesse Kriel, Kurt-Lee Arendse, Jasper Wiese, Pieter-Steph du Toit, and Lood de Jager etc all play in Japan and have not played a lot. Also, not all of them played more than 60 minutes in Turin. We didn’t feel that game was so taxing that there’d be a problem backing up again against France.”
Erasmus added that the scheduling of the two games also meant it wasn’t effectively a normal six day turnaround.
“We played the game at 1pm and then afterwards we flew straight from there to Paris. Because we played at 1pm and Friday’s game is only at 9pm it is not a normal six day turnaround, it is close to a seven day turnaround. Given the team we think they will select for this game we think this is the best possible team for us (to combat what we think they will bring).”
Any concern about the six day turnaround is misplaced given when in the tour the game is being played. If it was right at the end of a long tour and the Boks had just played a series of really tough games, there would be some rightful concern, but that has not been the case - and Erasmus is right, the minutes of his players have been good.
Even the URC players who have been active in the South African professional club season have not been overplayed - flyhalf Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu for instance did not play the Stormers’ URC game against Ulster just before the resumption of the international season, Wilco Louw has played only twice for the Stormers since returning to Cape Town, and Thomas du Toit has not been overplayed by the Sharks either.
Siya Kolisi has got some good game time at the Stormers but did not play against Ulster. A player who has had a lot of minutes is Stormers flanker Paul de Villiers, but he was only on the bench against Italy and will reprise that role against the French.
Damian Willemse also played in only some of the Stormers games that punctuated the period since the Boks played against Australia in September to bring the southern hemisphere international season to a close, a game which anyway saw Japan based Aphelele Fassi start at fullback.
Anyway, the history when it comes to short turnarounds for the Boks is a good one if you consider that one of their most important wins was achieved after a six-day turnaround - the 2019 World Cup final in Yokohama, where the Boks beat England 32-12, was played on the Saturday after a tight and bruising Sunday evening semifinal win against Wales.