Rassie Erasmus is confident the Springboks will peak at the right time in the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series.
The world champions have built towards the four-Test showdown against the All Blacks with matches against the Barbarians, England, Scotland and Wales, and will face Argentina in Buenos Aires next Saturday.
Erasmus has carefully managed his squad during that run, using 43 players across the three Nations Championship Tests. Significantly, only 16 of them logged more than 80 minutes from a possible 240, underlining the Bok coach’s policy of rotating his resources ahead of the biggest challenge of the season.
The Boks are expected to take a 26-man squad to Argentina, with 18 players remaining in Johannesburg to continue preparations for the All Blacks.
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The Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series begins at Ellis Park on 22 August before moving to Cape Town Stadium, FNB Stadium and concluding at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, USA.
Erasmus believes that careful workload management will ensure his squad is firing when it matters most.
“We feel comfortable that over a four-Test series against New Zealand they shouldn’t peak in the first game and then not be able to last all four games,” he told the media on Tuesday.
“We are fairly confident that we’ll be 100% for the New Zealand tour. But a four-Test series is long, and the last Test is in Baltimore.”
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Erasmus stressed that the Springboks are looking beyond the opening Test.
“We play the first match and try to win it, and then after that it’s another three Test matches, so I really don’t think you want to say from game one, we are so ready.
“You want to build and build so that when it comes to the crunch matches [you’re at your peak].
“I don’t think any of us thinks the other team is going to beat the other 4-0. It’s going to be much tougher than that.”
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Photo: Sydney Seshibedi/Gallo Images
The post Rassie: Boks will be at 100% for All Blacks appeared first on SA Rugby magazine.
Rassie Erasmus is confident the Springboks will peak at the right time in the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series.
The post Rassie: Boks will be at 100% for All Blacks appeared first on SA Rugby magazine. Read More
