An experienced Springbok lineup must have already beaten Wales twice before Jacques Nienaber will consider picking uncapped youngsters for the final Test of the July series.
The Bok selectors would do well to reward the likes of Evan Roos and Elrigh Louw, who are red-hot from roughing up the Welsh sides in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship.
The 22-year-olds are tipped as the natural successors to Bok No 8 Duane Vermeulen but, according to Nienaber, the old guard will have first crack at Wayne Pivac’s Wales in two months’ time.
Speaking to the media this week ahead of the first of two alignment camps before the July series, the Bok boss said: “In South Africa, if you can win the first two Test matches, great, it opens up the opportunity to get rotation in for the last Test match.
“Again, you don’t want to lose momentum, so you want to do the rotation as much as possible without compromising momentum, and that’s the balance – of innovating your squad and getting some Test experience, decision-making experience and some leadership experience into younger players who have to take over from the older players.
“If you don’t have winning momentum and confidence within your squad, and if you then introduce young players … the team doesn’t have confidence, and the players don’t have confidence.”
Nienaber added: “That’s why if we don’t perform in the first few Test matches and we lose one of those, then it’s a final in the last one and then you don’t want to lose a series to Wales for the sake of building; you want to keep momentum, so a lot of that will boil down to the players.”
