(Reuters) – South Africa coach Rassie Erasmus said his decision to make 10 changes to the side which thrashed Australia in their Rugby Championship opener was not a sign of disrespect ahead of the second match against Joe Schmidt’s side in Perth on Saturday.
World Cup winners South Africa cruised to a 33-7 win over the Wallabies in Brisbane last weekend and have rested several of their established names as Erasmus gives more experience to his wider group.
“If you look at this team, there are 14 World Cup winners and there’s only two guys that are new caps, so this is not disrespect to Australia and this is not us feeling nonchalant about the game,” Erasmus said.
“This is us picking a team that we feel is good enough to still get us the win, although it will be really, really tough against a team that wants to bounce back.”
Cheslin Kolbe, Jesse Kriel, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Elrigh Louw and Pieter-Steph du Toit are the only survivors in the starting line-up from the side that won in Brisbane with captain Siya Kolisi among those rested.
Salmaan Moerat will take over as captain while World Cup winners Eben Etzebeth, Malcolm Marx and Kwagga Smith were named among the reserves as Erasmus begins to look towards the Springboks’ world title in Australia in 2027.
“It’s important to win the Rugby Championship and it’s important to build into the next World Cup and it will be fantastic to win the Rugby Championship,” he said.
“I think it would be a slap in the face of the guys who’s playing this weekend if we think they’re not as good as the guys playing last weekend. We trust them fully.
“I think if they played the team last weekend, the Springbok team, they would give them a hell of a go.
“It wasn’t easy but we trust everybody and hopefully we can get the result.”
(Reporting by Michael Church, Editing by Peter Rutherford)
