Rassie Erasmus said prop Wilco Louw has the opportunity at Twickenham on Saturday to stake a claim as an understudy to two-time Springbok world champion Frans Malherbe.
Louw will play his first Test since 2021 in a Bok starting XV against England which shows 12 changes from last week’s four-tries-to-nil triumph over Scotland in Edinburgh.
The seasoned scrum anchor returned to the national set-up as a late injury call-up for South Africa’s end-of-year tour, after playing the last of his 14 Tests against Argentina in Port Elizabeth three years ago.
Louw’s arrival at the Vodacom Bulls last season has helped the Highvelders turn their scrum into a real weapon, the 30-year-old previously having made a name for himself as a front-row powerhouse for English club Harlequins.
Speaking in a Bok team announcement conference on Thursday, Erasmus emphasised that Louw’s selection is part of a broader plan to grow depth in the position, especially with 33-year-old Malherbe’s age in mind.
He said the world champions aim to prolong the careers of their veteran props while assessing younger talent for the 2027 World Cup.
TEAM: Wilco starts as Boks recall big guns
“If you look at what we’re trying to do there, without cheapening the Springbok jersey, we always know that when a player plays hopefully it won’t be for one or two Tests. I know he’s got eight or 10 or something like that already,” Erasmus told reporters.
“If you look at Frans, he’s not a laaitie or young anymore; we’re really trying to prolong some guys’ careers and see who can make it to the next World Cup, and by that we’re going to have to rotate. Frans is actually rotating now because he has an injury.”
The Bok boss also highlighted that while back-to-back World Cup winner Trevor Nyakane continues to feature for the Sharks, the Boks have also seen the benefits of rotating fellow tighthead props such as Thomas du Toit and Vincent Koch.
“A guy like Trevor, we want to get him proper game time at the Sharks week in, week out before we look at him again,” Erasmus added.
“We know what we have in Vincent, and we’ve seen how well Thomas has done last week [against Scotland], and we have the opportunity now to see what Wilco has.
“Picking Wilco… if we do lose this game, it’ll not be because of Wilco. He’s come on leaps and bounds; he’s a very good scrummager.
“Just like we didn’t consider Jean Kleyn for this weekend because he hasn’t trained a lot with us, we didn’t consider Wilco last week because he’s now only been with us for two-and-a-half weeks. We thought this would be a good game for him to get a chance.”
Photo: Grant Pitcher/Gallo Images
The post Rassie: Boks lose nothing by picking Wilco appeared first on SA Rugby magazine.
Src: sarugbymag.co.za
