Rassie Erasmus, international rugby’s man of mischief, ensures that there is rarely a dull moment when South Africa’s head coach is in the mood to give the opposition a little nudge in the build-up to a Test match.
His chosen forum was X (formerly Twitter) in which he suggested: “This is class!! Going to be epic [he included South African and Ireland flags]. This time next week!!” before going on to name the Ireland team plus replacements that he believes his counterpart Andy Farrell will select for the first Test at Loftus Versfeld next Saturday (4.0pm, Irish time).
He went on to include the age and weights of all the Irish players, including some misspellings like “Dan Sheenan,” “Tadgh Furlong,” “MCMcarthy”, “Tadgh Byrne” and “Gary Ringrose” before listing “Ryan Bird” and “Nick Tomoney” among what he predicts will be a six-two split on the bench. The fact that he spells some of the more difficult Irish names correctly adds to a sense of devilment.
Erasmus also added an addendum, to his tweet, specifying that Robbie Henshaw would be among the replacements if Ireland elected to go with a five-three split. He then added another tweet with a grid that offered a comparison between caps, age, and weight totals and also an average under the words, “small margins”. Ireland are the younger and heavier team according to his calculations.
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Of more substance is the news, via Afrikaans newspaper Rapport, that Willie Le Roux will be fit enough to play fullback having recovered from the concussion he sustained against Leinster in the URC semi-final that forced him to miss the Bulls’ defeat to Glasgow in the final and the Springboks victory over Wales at Twickenham.
Aphelele Fassi impressed in the win over Wales, but Le Roux is reputed to be Erasmus’s first choice. Makazole Mapimpi and Edwill can der Merwe, try scorers from that win in London, are both carrying niggles, but the news is mitigated by the fact that first-choice wings Cheslin Kolbe and Kurt-Lee Arendse should be fit to start.
The expectation is that Erasmus will opt for a five-three split on the bench when the team is announced on Tuesday because of those back three injury legacy issues along with a niggle that scrumhalf Faf de Klerk has, albeit that he is expected to shake it off and start in Pretoria.
Ireland trained at St Peter’s College in Johannesburg last Thursday, Friday and Saturday, before enjoying a day off on Sunday. All 35 players in the travelling party have trained fully and there are no injury concerns as they resume their preparations on the pitch on Monday morning. Andy Farrell will announce the team to play the Springboks on Thursday.
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