Rassie Erasmus explains limited Springbok rotation

South Africa face Argentina at Twickenham in London, aiming to claim back-to-back Rugby Championship titles for the first time in history.

Erasmus has made four changes to the match-day 23 and he says more changes would’ve been risky with limited preparation time.

"We would've liked to give Handre [Pollard] a chance, and obviously Franco [Mostert] is not here; the same with Faf [de Klerk]; same with [Makazole] Mapimpi," said Erasmus.

"So we would have loved to do that, but we thought only two days of training, maybe just two training sessions, you can't change too much, so I guess that played a big role.

"But we tend to – I think we're a squad of about 40 players – interchange, but with just two days of training, that wasn't too easy to do."

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The equation is simple: a bonus-point win over Argentina at Twickenham will be enough for South Africa to retain their Rugby Championship title, regardless of the result between Australia and New Zealand in Perth.

Despite South Africa’s glittering recent success, including World Cup triumphs in 2019 and 2023, Erasmus insists the team is keeping their feet firmly on the ground, warning that Argentina remain a dangerous opponent.

"History has shown, when we lost 57-0 to New Zealand, the next weekend – I'm talking about 2016 or 2017, I can't remember – the score was 14-12 with two points [difference] at Newlands," he noted.

"We know how things can turn around, we lost to New Zealand by seven points in Auckland and the next weekend we gave 40 to them.

"Luckily it's not the players writing themselves up and making a hell of a fuss about themselves, it's people, which is great and we love that support, and we appreciate the media and what they do.

"But the reality is we have to play against an Argentinian team who will be hurting, and we know when we've been hurting how we'll pitch up the next week.

"And I think having players like Eben [Etzebeth], Siya [Kolisi], Pieter-Steph [du Toit], Ox [Nche] – I can name a lot of guys that's really experienced, so I don't think we'll fall into the trap to think all of a sudden we're [guaranteed to win].

"It was far from a perfect game, there were brilliant performances, but I think if we lose this game it will not be because we think we're the business."