South Africa coach Rassie Erasmus has opted for consistency for Friday's Nations Championship game against France in Paris. He made only two changes to the match-day 23 that thrashed Italy 66-7 in Turin last week, Daily Maverick reported. The round five match kicks off on Friday night at Stade de France.
Wilco Louw moves into the starting lineup. Scrumhalf Cobus Reinach comes onto the bench in place of Grant Williams. Thomas du Toit is part of the bench, known as the bomb squad. Erasmus again picked a six/two split between forwards and backs among the replacements. The squad has a combined 1,165 caps.
The Springboks have four wins from four, a maximum 20 log points and a +140 points difference. New Zealand, in the same group, are also unbeaten with a +73 points difference. According to Daily Maverick, Erasmus is targeting a four-try bonus point win. Anything less than 10 log points from the games against France and Ireland might not be enough to reach the inaugural final. That final is at Twickenham in a little over two weeks.
Some expected Erasmus to rotate because the match falls on a Friday, leaving his side one fewer day to prepare. Erasmus said the Italy game was not very physical and many players are fresh. He noted that Japan-based players such as Manie Libbok, Damian de Allende, Jesse Kriel and Kurt-Lee Arendse have not played much recently. He added that France played Fiji at 9pm on Saturday, while his side played at 1pm. That makes the turnaround almost seven days, he said.
Erasmus also rejected the idea that South Africa are favourites because France have injuries, especially at flyhalf. He listed his own absentees, including Frans Malherbe, RG Snyman, Kwagga Smith, André Esterhuizen, Handré Pollard and Cheslin Kolbe. He said Eben Etzebeth had just flown out and would not be picked this weekend.
Earlier in the year, Erasmus played down the Nations Championship. He named the four-Test series against the All Blacks as the priority, and South Africa won it 3-1. They lost a one-off Mandela Plate Test to Australia 42-38 after Erasmus rested most of his first-choice players. On Friday the Boks chase a 10th win in their last 11 games against France. That run includes a 32-17 win at Stade de France last year with 14 men.