No guarantees on game time, says Erasmus, as Boks favour continuity in November

Japan is first on South Africa's schedule with the double World Cup winners then tackling France, Italy, Ireland and Wales on successive weekends.

Since reclaiming the head coach reins from Jacques Nienaber after the 2023 tournament in France, Erasmus has repeatedly chopped and changed his matchday 23s, making it rather difficult to predict who will be lining up for the side on any given weekend.

It's not uncommon for the Springboks boss to make sweeping changes to his team, but that trend stalled in the latter stages of the Rugby Championship after South Africa handed the All Blacks their heaviest-ever defeat.

Largely the same team would then start both Tests against Argentina with the changes made, mostly being enforced ones.

The Springboks team named to face Japan in the tour opener at Wembley Stadium features many of the players who ply their trade in the Japan Rugby League One competition, and while there should be a few changes in the team to face France a week later, Erasmus has hinted that heavy rotation isn't on the cards on the end-of-year tour.

"It doesn't help to keep rotating and we're losing matches. We've slipped up twice this year, once within seven points against New Zealand in the first Test match and the other against Australia, where we totally outplayed ourselves, and the Wallabies beat us really well," Erasmus said earlier this week.

"Continuity is something that builds confidence, and I can't say that we can guarantee everybody that's on tour that they will play because of the [quality of] teams we are playing â- it's important that we keep momentum.

"We'll select a team every weekend that we think can win that specific match; the teams will change for sure."

While Erasmus won't be rotating heavily in the final five matches of the year, he will continue to experiment, which is highlighted by the selection of Andre Esterhuizen on the bench.

This year, the Boks have deployed the Sharks centre in the back-row, with him being included on the bench several times as a hybrid player of sorts.

The coaching staff has clearly valued versatility in recent years, and having a player like Esterhuizen on the bench allows flexibility in the split.

"We could have put him at 22 or 23, but we've chatted a lot about him covering flanker and centre for us, so you can say it's a 5-3 or a 6-2 split," Erasmus remarked.

"It was just in the moment of putting down the team list that we put him there, so he will cover both. So there's nothing big to explain there; everybody knows how we are trying to work with him.

"I do think with him covering both centre and loose forward, he'll probably get into the matchday 23s more often, which is great for him. So I hope that explains that."

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