Bok squad will give insight into Rassie’s balancing act

The Springboks arrived back in South Africa early on Tuesday morning after a flight cancellation kept them in London for an extra day and the first order of business upon return will be a squad announcement for the Castle Lager Incoming Tours.

Set for lunch time on Tuesday, the announcement will start the buildup to a two-game series against Ireland that the Boks, as the adverts being run on SuperSport remind us, desperately want to win. Ireland were the one opponent they did not beat at the Rugby World Cup in France. South Africa has not beaten the currently No 2 ranked team - the Boks are No 1 - since 2016.

Put that another way, Ireland are the one nation that coach Rassie Erasmus has not conquered in his time in charge of the now double World Cup champions. So yes, there is one more step, one more objective, one more mission to complete as an extension to the previous quest in France last September and October to establish the Boks as the acknowledged best team on the planet.

So it goes without saying that the Boks will put out their best team for the challenge. They will rely heavily on the personnel used at the World Cup and the plan that was in place at the World Cup.

They will be playing the Irish series in the dry season in South Africa, so that does not mean the conservative game they had to turn to when the wet weather arrived in Paris and nearly helped England knock them out in the semifinal, but the more attacking game they played for much of the World Cup year.

We saw glimpses in their win over Wales at the weekend the dynamic that might be brought to their attacking game by the addition of former All Black flyhalf and Japan and Highlanders coaching guru Tony Brown, and those are extra layers we will start seeing more of in time. Right now, the first priority is to just beat Ireland - and then move on.

The moving on shouldn’t mean there will be wholesale changes, but we did get an inkling of how Erasmus is going to handle the balancing act he faces, meaning refreshing the team while carrying on winning, with his selection last week against Wales.

There is no indication at this point of how big the squad to be announced at midday on Tuesday will be, but it isn’t going to be a group tasked just with winning the series against Ireland. The media advisory signposting the announcement stated that it will be the squad “for the Castle Lager Incoming Tours”.

PORTUGAL GAME WILL BE PART OF BUILD TO 2027

That means the game played the week after the Irish series is concluded in Durban on 13 July will be factored in. That is the first ever clash with Portugal in Bloemfontein. Erasmus may have uncomfortable memories of what happened last time his team was in South Africa’s judicial capital. Wholesale changes were made for the middle test of a three game series against Wales, 14 in all, and the Boks lost.

But he is likely to do that again. Players who played against Wales who did well but won’t be needed against Ireland deserve another chance to build their experience of playing for the Boks, and there were many others in the extended squad that trained in Pretoria before the Boks went to London that Erasmus might want to see play.

Emirates Lions fullback Quan Horn and his teammate Morne van den Bergh, Hollywoodbets Sharks flyhalf Siya Masuku - how did they impress the Bok coaches during the training camp? We might get to know when the squad is announced. If they are not there, it does not mean the end of the road for them, but it will tell us those players won’t be getting capped in the Portugal game and are therefore not part of the immediate plans.

A lot of focus will be on which Vodacom Bulls players are added to the group after that franchise was included from the initial selection because of the Vodacom United Rugby Championship final. Wilco Louw and the overseas based Trevor Nyakane are surely both in the frame to add weight, no pun intended, to an already massive pool of class tighthead props.

But it is understood Cameron Hanekom, the excellent Bulls No 8, has a hamstring problem that will most likely keep him out.

RASSIE MAY PULL A RABBIT OUT OF THE HAT

There are obvious inclusions from the overseas-based contingent unavailable for the Twickenham game - Siya Kolisi and RG Snyman reminded us of their presence by sitting together in London - but with Erasmus you never know, there may be a rabbit he will pull out of the hat.

With fullback potentially thin going forward, as although Willie le Roux is likely to be ready for Ireland he is unlikely to be around to the next World Cup in 2027, there must surely be at least an outside chance that the ship could come in for the former Lions No 15 now doing well in England, Tyrone Green. Or someone else we haven’t thought of but the Bok coach has been keeping tabs on.

Whatever the case, now that everyone who is eligible to play for the Boks is available this squad may give us more of an indication of Erasmus’ thinking around the balancing act he faces over the next while than the initial wider group called up and before that the groups that attended the alignment camps.