The Springboks are expected to make a couple of changes to their team for this weekend’s second Rugby Championship clash against the Wallabies. 

The coach, Rassie Erasmus, will be naming his team on Tuesday (13/8), and all indications are that they won‘t stick with the team that won 33-17 on Saturday in Brisbane. However, having the lead in the competition and with the All Blacks having lost to Argentina in Wellington, New Zealand, winning remains a priority.

The prop, Jan-Hendrik Wessels, who made his debut against Portugal in his home town of Bloemfontein, could be playing this week. He said they have their plans in place and they will not be complacent after the outstanding win in Queensland.

“We obviously had a good one on the weekend and we have talked about it. We’re preparing ourselves with the same standards we went in with last week, so something like complacency wouldn’t happen,” said Wessels. “I don‘t think there‘s any complacency in the team – we know what the plan is and we know what the goal is. So I think we’re ready for it.”

Jan-Hendrik Wessels. Picture: Morgan Piek

Wessels added that there are a few work-ons, but last week proved that putting in the hard yards in training pays off. “We’re just working hard to put on the same performance as we did last weekend. It was obviously a great performance and there are a few things we can fix – like there were one or two line-outs we missed.

“In training, we really nailed down our detail and yeah, I think we can be proud of the performance we put out there.”

Saturday’s test in Perth kicks off at 11:45.

OFM Sport/Morgan Piek cg/mc