Rassie’s Springboks embrace evolution as Italy clash beckons in Pretoria

Fasten your seatbelts, Springbok fans. The ride with Rassie Erasmus’s team is only going to get faster as South Africa evolve their attacking game, starting in earnest on Saturday in Pretoria against Italy.

The Boks put 50 points past the Barbarians last week in pouring rain, underlining their commitment to greater attacking adventure as the 2027 Rugby World Cup looms on the horizon.

After naming 13 players from the Baabaas game in this week’s matchday squad, Erasmus made it clear: evolve or die, as international rugby continues to morph each season.

“If you don’t change, you get left behind. We started evolving when attack coach Tony Brown came in last year,” Erasmus said. “You could see the intent last week, and if it wasn’t so wet, more of the offloads would have stuck.

“This group of senior guys who are playing this weekend want to continue with that. This team will definitely not slot back to 2019 when it was a kick-and-chase, pressure game for us. This team on Saturday must try and get it right.”

Erasmus has made just two changes to the backline that looked so threatening last week despite the conditions. Handré Pollard starts at flyhalf in place of Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, while Damian Willemse returns at fullback — his first game for the Boks since the 2023 World Cup final — replacing Aphelele Fassi.

“As new blood comes in, we change,” Erasmus continued.

“In 2019, (attack coach) Swys de Bruin withdrew a month before the World Cup and we met (replacement) Felix Jones in Japan. That is how much time we had to prepare on the attacking front.

"Then, post-2019, the Covid pandemic took two years of development away from us, and we had no preparation for the Lions series.

“Still, with the (limited) time we had going into the last World Cup, we played some good attacking rugby. None of these guys we’re still picking are not coachable enough to evolve with us.”

The wet conditions of the Cape will give way to the fast, dry Highveld in Pretoria, where Italy’s defence is set to face a stern examination by a hungry Springbok side.

“This is the first Test of the year and we want to set the tone,” Erasmus said. “We want a steady boat going into this match. That is why we’ve picked a strong side with a lot of continuity from last week.

“This is not the Italy of old,” Erasmus warned.

“We remember the importance of playing them in the 2019 World Cup pool game. It was a vital game and we were very nervy about it. There was a red card that swung it our way. A lot of the guys in this team recall that match.”

Erasmus noted that former Puma Gonzalo Quesada has brought clarity and structure to the Italian side.

“They used to be a flamboyant team that ran from everywhere. Last year, they had a good year; they manned up in the first two games of the Six Nations. But they’ve only two United Rugby Championship teams to pick from, and they tend to run out of players.

“We expect passion and a physicality that we need to handle. They have a good, structured kicking game. I wouldn’t say they’re a conservative team, but they’re not the Italy of three years ago.”

Erasmus has once more handed the captaincy to Jesse Kriel.

“We’re not in the business of just handing out captaincies, but Jesse deserves it. Eben Etzebeth is playing but we don’t want him to play 80 minutes, and it’s good to have your captain on the field for as long as possible,” Erasmus explained.

“Jesse is the fittest guy in the team and one of the biggest students of the game. He can play 80 minutes, he can play wing and 13; he’s always been our defensive captain.

"He has developed his attacking game — where he used to be a bit one-dimensional, now he’s added the grubber, the offload and the hand-off, and he’s doing it at the highest level.”

TEAM

Springboks starting XV: 15 Damian Willemse, 14 Cheslin Kolbe, 13 Jesse Kriel (captain), 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Kurt-Lee Arendse, 10 Handré Pollard, 9 Morné van den Berg; 8 Jasper Wiese, 7 Vincent Tshituka, 6 Marco van Staden; 5 Lood de Jager, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Wilco Louw, 2 Malcolm Marx, 1 Ox Nché; Replacements: 16 Bongi Mbonambi, 17 Jan-Hendrik Wessels, 18 Vincent Koch, 19 RG Snyman, 20 Franco Mostert, 21 Kwagga Smith, 22 Faf de Klerk, 23 Willie le Roux