Steven Kitshoff and Oupa Mohojé agree Bok boss Rassie Erasmus won’t be too stressed by Sunday’s loss, as most of those who played needed to “catch up” to the regulars.
They were speaking on the For the Love of Rugby: South Africa podcast after the 42-38 defeat to the Wallabies in Perth.
Erasmus made 13 changes to the starting XV that beat the All Blacks in Baltimore. André Esterhuizen became the 68th Bok captain and beyond Eben Etzebeth, only Handré Pollard and Franco Mostert had more than 50 caps.
Australia, unbeaten under Les Kiss, led 42-17 after 63 minutes. Four yellow cards against the Wallabies and three South African tries then turned a comfortable lead into a tense finish.
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Mohojé felt the outcome showed that Erasmus potentially has two World Cup squads to pick from.
“I don’t think I’d panic. Look, Rassie has potentially two World Cup squads,” the former Bok flanker said.
“If I was Rassie, I really wouldn’t panic. It would just be to make sure that the players get used to and understand Test match rugby and take it for what it is and then work on from there.”
Kitshoff suggested that Erasmus could lose an entire run-on lineup and still defend their World Cup trophy Down Under next year.
“Also giving the guys the opportunity to catch up to the – I don’t want to say the solid starting 15, the ones we saw in Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry – but also giving these guys opportunities to play more often gives them the opportunity to catch up and to say, ‘Listen, it doesn’t really matter what happens, we can have 15 injuries going into the World Cup, we’ve got a strong enough squad to actually do it again.’
“I think that’s a very strong position to be in because we’ll probably see a lot of these guys play again towards the Nations Championship, which is amazing.”
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Photo: James Worsfold/Getty Images
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Steven Kitshoff and Oupa Mohojé agree Bok boss Rassie Erasmus won’t be too stressed by Sunday’s loss, as most of those who played needed to “catch up” to the regulars.
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