The Springboks coaching team is unsure how much the matchday squads will change during the November Nations Championship games, according to assistant coach Jerry Flannery.

Rassie Erasmus is renowned for selecting teams in advance, often naming his 23s to the squad weeks in advance for matches, but Flannery has explained why this international window is different.

Mini World Cup preparation

South Africa head into the northern hemisphere leg of the Nations Championship at the summit of the southern hemisphere table, leading the All Blacks on points difference with both teams winning all of their July fixtures. With the competition concluding with a Finals Weekend in London after three weekends of fixtures, the Bok coaching staff is viewing this international window like the knockout stages of a Rugby World Cup.

Next year’s World Cup has been expanded to include a round of 16 before the quarter-finals, meaning that this Test window closely mirrors the showpiece tournament in Australia. With the team set to use this period as preparation for the World Cup, the team selection will be a week-by-week process.

“I think the tour is a good representative for us heading towards a World Cup next year, where people have got to get together and play games consistently in a short period of time,” Flannery told reporters ahead of the Boks’ opening against Italy in Turin.

“We’re not sure how much we’re going to rotate through this period. For us, it’s almost like World Cup knockout stages, like group stages and then into a round of 16, quarter-final, semi-final, and final.”

Short preparation time for the opening game

Erasmus has gone full metal jacket for the meeting with the Azzurri at the home of Italian footballing giants Juventus, naming a team that closely resembles the one that defeated the All Blacks in Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series.

The Bok head coach explained that the short turnaround from joining up in camp and the first game meant that they had to back cohesion and that the debutants didn’t have enough time in camp to get to grips with how the side operates. That is not just something that the South Africans are dealing with, according to Flannery.

“I don’t think it’s easy, but it’s quite similar for most of the teams competing in the Nations Championship,” the former Ireland hooker explained.

“We were together for a long time, and a lot of the current squad were with us all through that period. You always want to be evolving as a team, but a lot of the stuff that we would have done during Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry is still fairly fresh in the players’ minds.

“So, it was a case of getting them in, not overloading them, but reminding them how we do things when we’re in camp with the Boks.”

Boks won’t be chasing bonus points

The Springboks and All Blacks are both unbeaten so far in the inaugural Nations Championship; one of the two teams won’t make the final of the tournament even if they win all of their matches over the next three weeks.

That means that bonus points and points difference will be a deciding factor in who will be the southern hemisphere’s representative in the finale in London. However, Flannery says that the Springboks won’t be chasing bonus points over the next few weeks and will be focusing on winning matches before going for the jugular.

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“We are aware that we have an advantage with points difference going into it and that it’s going to probably come down to teams getting bonus points, but we don’t want to go into games it would be disrespectful to think that we could go in and target bonus points,” he said.

“We’ve played Italy before and they’ve run us really, really close and we want to focus on winning. We’re also aware that winning the game is the most important thing and then after that chasing the bonus point.

“It’s difficult to go into a game starting thinking we need to get bonus points because you’ve got to win the game first. I think the quality of the teams that we’re playing is too high to think about bonus points initially. It’s win the game and then the last 20 is when maybe if you are ahead, go for the bonus point.”