Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus has hinted he will ring some changes for the second match of the Test series against Italy at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Gqeberha on Saturday.
SA started their international season with a 42-24 win over the Azzurri at a vibey Loftus, but Erasmus was not entirely satisfied because they did not put their visitors to the sword.
The Boks scored six tries to Italy’s three but couldn’t build on a commanding 28-3 halftime lead, and Erasmus expressed his frustration with the team’s performance in front of a good-sized crowd in Pretoria.
SA’s tries were scored by Jesse Kriel, Morne van den Berg (2), Kurt-Lee Arendse, Vincent Koch and Marco van Staden. Italy responded through Manuel Zuliani, Pablo Dimcheff and Niccolo Cannone.
“Internally, we have about 13 or 14 players that we said we will give a run to this week,” Erasmus said after the match. “We will build the bench or starting line-up around those guys, and some of them we have already announced internally.
“Italy threw a lot of physicality at us. Normally, you think a team that makes 120 tackles in the first half would break in the second half. They are a team that is fit and passionate.”
Erasmus said the team the Boks will field on Saturday must be imposing and go the distance.
“We have to make sure the team we are going to pick this week is not just a team that can go 50 or 60 minutes – it must be a team that can go for 80 minutes.
“The other nine guys that we must pick will either be in the starting line-up, and someone like Sacha [Feinberg-Mngomezulu] will be back. We will see who’s the other nine, maybe play a guy like Cobus [Reinach] or Grant [Williams].
“We will just have to fine-tune now and take stock of injuries.”
Though he was not happy with the performance, Erasmus accepted the result.
“I guess it’s a positive. We scored six tries, but we are frustrated. I didn’t pick up in the week this was the way we were going to perform, but it’s all fixable [though] it’s definitely frustrating.”