Sir Steve Hansen believes that Rassie Erasmus is resting key Springboks players for the November Nations Championship internationals.

Cheslin Kolbe, Eben Etzebeth, Andre Esterhuizen and Handre Pollard have all been omitted from the touring squad through injury, but the former All Blacks boss thinks that Erasmus has purposefully left the players out.

Springboks will have high expectations

The Springboks head coach has also included six uncapped players in his touring party to cover for the setbacks. Hansen says that the rotation of the players is crucial for South Africa to stay as the top team in the world, with Erasmus determined to remain the best side in the world.

“Well, they will have high expectations, but at the same time, I think Rassie is playing ‘look after some of my players for the World Cup’. There’s no doubt about that with Etzebeth,” Hansen said on the Rugby Unity podcast.

“He’s not gone. So, he’s giving him a breather. One or two of the older players, he’s starting to say, ‘Right, well, do I need to take them?’

“Pollard has been around a long time and is still a wonderful player, but is he the player that we’re going to win the World Cup with? So he’s asking himself that.”

Rassie is rolling the dice

Hansen says that while Erasmus needs to rotate his squad, he does believe that he is gambling in doing so with the younger selections that he has made. However, he predicts that the Bok boss will back his regular Test starters when it matters.

“He’s rolling the dice in some areas and he’s entitled to do that; they’re the number one side in the world at the moment,” he continued.

“The formula of giving people the opportunity, either through injury or through choice, I think is one way of staying there.

“He’s pretty determined to stay there. So, it will be interesting to see how often he plays a lot of these young guys through the next three games.

“If they get one game, that’ll be great. If they get two, then that’ll be better. But when it gets down to the nitty-gritty, he’s going to pick what he always does, the strongest possible group he’s got available to him.”

Last window to experiment

Furthermore, Hansen believes that this will be the final international window that Erasmus will experiment with his squad before the Rugby World Cup but he and his staff will keep an eye out for potential bolters who could emerge before the tournament.

Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list for world-class coverage you can trust.

“Most of your experiments are over, you’ll still be happy to play with one or two slots, but I think you’d be pretty clear, amongst your selection group, ‘Okay, well, here are our three players in this position’ – by the end of this tour, I’d say,” the 2015 World Cup-winning coach said.

“But then, you always find someone in the new Super season or the new URC, someone might put their hand up and jump out. They go, ‘Well, okay, let’s have a look at him over these next early tests before the World Cup and yep, he’s outstanding. We’ve got to pick him.’

“Invariably, we ended up with one or two of those guys every World Cup.”