OPINION: Why have the Springboks not rested more players for Australian sojourn?

The Springboks have a strong squad in Australia for their one-off Test against the Wallabies, just two weeks after the end of Rugby's Greatest Rivalry. The Springboks are preparing to take on the Wallabies in a one-off Test at the Optus Stadium in Perth on Sunday, but they may have missed a trick by not resting more of their first team squad. It has been a gruelling past three months for the Boks. They kicked off their season towards the end of June with a non-Test against the Barbarians, followed by three home Nations Championship Tests in July. In August they faced Argentina in a one-off Test in Buenos Aires, and over the past month they have taken on the All Blacks four times in Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry (RGR) series, which they won 3-1. The final match of that series was just over a week ago in Baltimore. Of the squad that travelled to the US for the final RGR match, only Pieter-Steph du Toit and Damian de Allende have been released, while no players have been called up, which is a surprise given Bok coach Rassie Erasmus’ penchant for rotating. It seems strange considering that the one-off Test is the perfect opportunity for the Boks to again Test their depth. And there’s not much riding on the result. Perfect opportunity It was surely the perfect opportunity to give more of the senior side a break, with players like Jesse Kriel, Malcolm Marx, Damian Willemse, Jasper Wiese and Ruan Nortje having played a lot of rugby recently. Even players like Siya Kolisi and Eben Etzebeth, who were injured and concussed respectively at the start of the season, have been with the squad throughout, and could have received a good rest. All these players mentioned above could have done without another two weeks in Australia, whether they actually play this weekend or not. On the flip side, a number of players who didn’t travel to the US, among them Carlu Sadie, Boan Venter, Ntuthuko Mchunu, Cobus Wiese and Ben-Jason Dixon, could have been employed this weekend. Even so, the Boks are expected to use several of the fringe men over the course of the New Zealand series, or those who didn’t play for many minutes, this Sunday, among them Handre Pollard, Canan Moodie, Andre Esterhuizen, Herschel Jantjies, Cameron Hanekom and Franco Mostert.