Springbok boss Rassie Erasmus on Tuesday appealed for respect for Argentina, while putting a stop to enquiries about his Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry selections.
Erasmus sat alongside Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu in a teleconference from Buenos Aires, after naming the Bok team to face Felipe Contepomi’s Los Pumas on Saturday.
Feinberg-Mngomezulu will start at 10 in his first outing for the Boks this year. Asked how important it was for him to put in a big performance to secure a spot for the All Blacks series, Erasmus interjected.
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“That’s not in Sacha’s hands,” he said. “It’s not him competing with Handré Pollard and Manie Libbok. It’s Handré helping him this weekend to perform as well as he can … that’s the way we operate.
“All three of them will definitely be in the Greatest Rivalry squad, and definitely will go to the World Cup if they keep their form. He can’t control if he gets injured, obviously … But we’re going to go with three flyhalves and they are the three flyhalves currently.”
Feinberg-Mngomezulu was then quizzed what it would mean to face New Zealand over four Tests from 22 August to 12 September.
“I don’t mean to disrespect your question, but I’m coming back from injury so I can’t really be thinking two weeks ahead,” the 24-year-old replied.
“I’ve played against the All Blacks four times now, I’ve enjoyed it every single time, and that’s it. I’m focused on Saturday.”
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Erasmus was also asked whether there was a message for the seven returning Boks in the match 23 not to overreach trying to impress the selectors.
“I hope you guys don’t take this the wrong way when we keep on answering the same … But, if you’re an Argentinian coach or Argentinian player, and we sit here talking about the All Blacks series and they hear this press conference, it will be a slap in their face.
“We want to try and beat Argentina in Argentina, which is a really tough thing, if people believe it or not,” the coach said. “They’ve given us the biggest hiding ever since we’ve coached the Springboks as a coaching team [32-19 in Mendoza, 2018].
“To answer your question: we all believe they will be in the Greatest Rivalry squad, but it’s not in the sense that they must play themselves into the squad.
“We definitely know we’re going to use them somewhere during the Greatest Rivalry, but we just have to get past this tough hurdle that’s in front of us.”
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Photo: David Rogers/Getty Images
