Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus has shown Andy Farrell’s Ireland the utmost respect and paid the visitors the greatest compliment in picking a near replica of the World Cup final starting XV for Saturday’s blockbuster at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria.
Duane Vermeulen, that formidable presence at the back of the scrum, has retired. His World Cup final replacement Jasper Wiese is suspended. Damian Willemse, starting at 15 in the World Cup final, is injured, but Erasmus has picked Willie le Roux at No 15, with the 93 Test double World Cup winner having played off the bench in the final.
The wingers are the same. The midfield is the same and the halfbacks are the same.
Erasmus, in interviews, has said if someone had offered him two defeats against Ireland in the past six years, but given him two World Cup titles and a British & Irish Series win, then he would have taken the trade-off.
Kwagga Smith, who was so influential off the bench in the World Cup final, starts at No 8.
Ox Nche, a second-half replacement in the World Cup final, starts at loose head because experienced loosehead prop Steven Kitshoff is injured. Six of the World Cup final Bok starting pack will start in Pretoria. Seven of the eight backs will start.
That is telling you how highly Erasmus rates Ireland — the only team he has not beaten in his six years in charge of the Springboks. Notably, the two sides have only met twice in that period, once in Dublin in November in 2022 and the other in Paris in a Pool match at the 2023 World Cup.
Ireland won 19-16 in Dublin and 13-8 in Paris, but lost the quarterfinal 28-24 to the All Blacks. Erasmus’s Boks would win all their three play-off matches by a single point to back up their 2019 World Cup title win against England.
Erasmus, in interviews, has said if someone had offered him two defeats against Ireland in the past six years, but given him two World Cup titles and a British & Irish Series win, then he would have taken the trade-off.
The Bok coach, having coached at Munster for two seasons, wants to beat Ireland and was particularly annoyed that the Boks did not win the Pool matchup. In Chasing the Sun, Erasmus said that while it was not a clutch match for the Boks and they would still have qualified if they lost, he was seriously put out by the lack of emotion from the players in defeat.
He felt they were not at the races and he let them have it. So while the match was not a World Cup decider, it certainly hurt the coach.
His World Cup winners owe him, and it starts in Pretoria on Saturday.
This is the first Test match of the home season and it is the first time the World Cup winners are on parade in a match in South Africa since beating New Zealand 12-11 in the final.
Erasmus’s coaching staff has changed. Former All Blacks flyhalf Tony Brown is the attack coach and former Ireland and Munster hooker Jerry Flannery looks after defence post Jacques Nienaber’s departure to Leinster.
There has been plenty of hype around Brown and there is anticipation of a revolution in how the Bok backs will play. The reality is more likely to be evolution than revolution.
Ireland responded from the heartache of failing for a 10th successive time to go past the quarterfinals at a World Cup by winning the Six Nations.
They will miss the retired Johnny Sexton at No 10 and the injured scrumhalf Jameson Gibson-Park. The duo were the drivers of so much of Ireland’s authority and success.
Their absence brings opportunities to the next in line, but the cauldron in Pretoria on Saturday will be sizzling.
The atmosphere will be electric, and the home crowd will make noise.
Farrell knows, through having done it with a historic first ever Ireland series win against the All Blacks, how to silence a home crowd.
He has the squad to be successful and anyone fortunate enough to be at Loftus is in for a treat.
It is going to be a great Test match, the first of two between the two sides in seven days, and it will tell us more about the prospects of both teams than the history of what got them to No 1 and No 2 in the world rankings.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.