Cape Town – Springbok assistant coach Mzwandile Stick says concerns over flyhalf Handre Pollard's cramping was what motivated Elton Jantjies' selection on the bench for the Rugby Championship Test against Australia on Saturday.
With the Boks going for a five-three split between forwards and backs, Jantjies, Frans Steyn and Jaden Hendrikse will offer backline reinforcement in Adelaide.
The 32-year-old Jantjies has not played since the first Test against Wales at Loftus Versfeld, with Pollard having started at 10 in the four Tests since then.
While his last outing was a poor one, Stick backed Jantjies to grow in confidence the more he gets to run out onto the field.
“Ella has done a good job for us in the past, specifically if you look at the games against Australia and New Zealand last year,” said Stick.
“Lately, Handre Pollard has been getting cramps. That’s why we felt as a coaching staff that having Elton will put us in a better position.
“We have done this before. If you look at the final game against the British & Irish Lions, we had Morne Steyn on the bench. Everything went according to plan in that game. Morne came on and kicked the winning penalty at the end.
“We are expecting a similar challenge in this game. The Wallabies are going to be tough at home.
“The key thing is that the players are getting an opportunity to play week in and week out. That brings confidence. A player will never gain confidence if he is not on the field. It’s a similar thing with Elton. When he played against Wales he didn’t have his best game, but he also needs more game time.
“We are in a good position and are expecting the game to be tight. Elton has done this job for us before and we are excited to see him in that role again.”
It's rather puzzling that the Boks have a worse record in Australia – where they haven't won since 2013 – than they do against their rivals the All Blacks in New Zealand, and while Stick admitted that the Kiwis were always in their peripheral outlook when facing the Aussies, he assured the media that, this time around, Australia have all of their attention.
“This time our main focus is 100% on what we want to do against the Wallabies,” said Stick.
“Sometimes we would have two different strategies when it comes to splitting the teams and we focus on what we want to achieve against the All Blacks. This time, it’s a different case. We have spent all our energy focusing on Australia.
“The coaching staff are making sure that we understand fully what’s required from this game. We haven’t beaten Australia since 2013 so it’s a massive challenge.”