One of the chief objectives of the Springboks’ series in Australia was for Rassie Erasmus to gain intelligence on the relative newcomers in the 33-man squad. He will now have some answers, although the heavy rain in Perth at the weekend made life difficult. Still, some players fared better than others.
Here, Mike Greenaway looks at players who starred or struggled.
Aphelele Fassi
The “Weekend Special” was on fire.
He is a completely transformed player from the nervous youngster who delivered an error-strewn performance in the loss to Wales in Bloemfontein in 2022. Erasmus cut him from the squad with instructions to fix his defence, his aerial game and his kicking. He has done so with interest.
His bravery in taking the high balls stood out, while his try to break the game open for the Boks was magnificent; Aussie wing Andrew Kellaway will have nightmares of Fassi streaking past him like he was in slow motion.
Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu
Dare I say the best thing that could have happened to the 22-year-old was for him to have an iffy game compared to his excellent performance in Brisbane.
Yes, he already has the maturity to not get carried away by the hype around him, but his boots will be firmly on the ground after a couple of glaring errors in Perth. The obvious clanger was dropping a well-delivered pass from Cheslin Kolbe as the tryline beckoned, but there was also a restart kicked out on the full and a few misplaced tactical kicks.
Morne van den Berg
The bone-hard, dry pitch of the Emirates Airline Park was a world away for the Lions scrumhalf as he struggled in the wet and slippery conditions. In particular, he battled with his box kicking as the wind and rain swirled above him.
His passing was not as precise as usual and the introduction of Grant Williams made a significant difference. Van den Berg will learn plenty from this game and for now, Erasmus will know he is not a wet-weather player.
Johan Grobbelaar, Elrigh Louw, Jan-Hendrik Wessels
I’m looking at the Bulls trio as a unit as they had similar games.
Louw dropped the first kick-off and mishandled a few times. He is a workhorse who loves to carry and does so effectively, but his skills need work.
“Grobbies” had a nightmare first half with his line-out throwing, although I’m not sure of the wisdom of some of the early calls to the back of the line-out given the conditions. He settled down when the ball was called to the front of the line-out and did good work in the build-up to Marco van Staden’s try.
Wessels will be happy with his industrious outing even though the uncontested scrums in the second half robbed him of scrumming opportunities. Erasmus knows that the ref got it wrong when he pinged Wessels for a collapsed scrum when the culprit was opposite number Allan Alaalatoa.
Ruan Nortje
The Bulls captain delivered a mature and polished performance in the line-outs especially. He has grown a beard and looked a carbon copy of Lood de Jager.
The latter is a line-out aficionado but sadly is injury prone and who knows if he will ever make it back into the green and gold. If he doesn’t, he has a long-term successor in Nortje, who also has a big engine and gets involved all over the field. He had a very impressive outing.