Yesterday the Springboks played the Wallabies in a "friendly" test match at Optus Stadium in Perth. I never watched the game and had no interest of watching the game especially when it was more of a thank you to the squad and not the first team on view. As soon as Rassie Erasmus announced that he had changed 13 players and only kept two players you knew this was an experiment that could back fire. I just felt sorry for the spectators who were short changed by not seeing the first choice team
Over the course of this season the South African squad has consisted of 54 players so that is the equivalent of over 3 teams. Not every player is at the same level with some older players on their way out and newer players still learning the ropes.
What better way than to say thank you by offering these players one last test to prove they still have what it takes. Just by looking through the team selection there is around 7 players that are no longer of the standard required and of those 7 two were always questionable with a big question mark hanging over their heads.
The important part is not about winning or losing now but defining your world cup squad for October - November next year. World Cup squads are normally either 32 or 33 players in size with no final confirmation as of yet. I would confidentially say 30 players have already booked their spots on the plane and there are one or tow spots undecided.
As much as I do not like these team experiments I get the need to work through the process and yes there is always a risk of an upset. I did not fancy this team from the off and even though they came very close losing 42-38 if the correct team had been picked this would have been a very different out come.
The team has been on the road for the last 3 weeks having played in Baltimore and then heading directly to Australia and this is after an intense month of rugby playing in the Greatest Rivalry series competing against New Zealand. This match against Australia like the very first game 8 weeks ago versus Argentina was never going to be the top billing and was part of the process.
The Springbok players will be flying home today with some of the squad heading back to their clubs so they needs to have some form of a break. The break is not long as they are in action for another 4 matches or possibly 5 matches in November competing in the Nations Championship.
Many of the top players will not have a break now until December so one can understand the need to rotate and experiment in games that have no real meaning besides being just a game. For the purest there is no such thing as a test match is a test match no matter who you are playing and also get that feeling that somehow games have been cheapened and why some I will skip.
The good news after this next World Cup where I expect we shall see many retirements there are a number of genuine replacements ready to fill those boots. Possibly some of those players are on the verge of eclipsing the first choice selection but then again it is not about that as this is a team sport and every player has a role to play whether it is in a support role for training being ready to fill in if required or playing the actual games.