Springboks legend Victor Matfield reckons that Rassie Erasmus is treating the Nations Championship like the Rugby World Cup having named his strongest available team for the opening two matches.

South Africa’s head coach made the surprising choice to go into the opening encounter of the November series against Italy fully-loaded.

Despite it being the easiest match of the four games they will have this month, he opted not to give any of the six uncapped players an opportunity in Turin.

Another strong Springboks side

Erasmus has now followed that up by naming a similarly strong line-up for the second clash against France on Friday.

That prompted All Blacks legend Sir John Kirwan to ask: “Do you think he cares about the cup?”

The Boks boss has previously stated that the Nations Championship was much lower down his list of priorities, but Matfield reckons that his attitude towards the tournament has changed.

“It looks like he does,” was the former Springboks lock’s response on the Rugby Rivals podcast. “I thought against Italy he would pick more youngsters, or even on the bench, but he went out with his strongest side.

“But I also think he learnt a lesson against Australia. There are a lot of youngsters there that haven’t been in the squad so for them it’s more about getting to know the culture, getting to be part of it.

“Maybe we’ll see them somewhere, but I can’t see them [getting a game in November], as long as we’re winning and as long as we’re in the run for this Nations Championship.

“I think it will be pretty much the same as what we did against New Zealand in the Greatest Rivalry, just going out there with our strongest team.

“We need to win four games in a row [to win the Nations Championship] and that’s pretty much like you have to do in a World Cup. From a quarter-final onwards, you have to win three or four big games in a row, so it looks like that’s the way he’s going.

“I don’t think we will see a lot of the youngsters get an opportunity, as long as we win. Once we lose and we’re maybe not playing for that first position, I think some of the youngsters might then get a chance.”

It looks likely that the Springboks will have to win their remaining pool games against France and Ireland to qualify for the Nations Championship final.

They could get a reprieve if the All Blacks succumb to either Wales and England but, considering their performances under new head coach Dave Rennie in 2026, New Zealand will be confident of beating both of those teams.

Les Bleus could well be particularly tough for the Boks, but they have been helped by the injuries the French have sustained.

France’s fly-half crisis

With Romain Ntamack, Matthieu Jalibert and Thomas Ramos absent, Antoine Dupont has shifted to fly-half for Friday’s encounter.

Matfield therefore doesn’t necessarily “fear” this French outfit but admits that mindset is “so dangerous because French rugby’s got so much depth.”

He added: “If you look at their Top 14 competition, there are five or six teams that can compete every weekend.

“The All Blacks have won the World Cup with a third or fourth choice fly-half when everyone was injured in 2011.

“We went into the semi-finals with the Bulls when we lost both of our centres and our second-choice guys came in.

“I believe that if everything is working, just to slot in one [is doable]. They’ll be tough, even if they don’t have Jalibert and Ntamack there.”