“When he talks, he really talks sense.” Rassie Erasmus on Jasper Wiese, who wins his 50th Test cap from the bench in Perth.
Jasper Wiese was one of the players Rassie Erasmus considered for the Springboks captaincy this week. He wins his 50th cap against Australia on Sunday from the bench instead, and Erasmus says Wiese agreed that was the right place for him.
He was asked about the milestone at the team announcement in Terrigal on Tuesday 22 September and gave one long answer. It started with why Wiese is not starting and finished somewhere much warmer.
Should a 50th Test be a start, or is the bench where the Springboks need him?
Why Jasper Wiese is on the bench for his 50th
The reporter pointed out that this squad does not make a fuss of milestones, then asked about Wiese anyway. Erasmus began with the custom he was breaking.
“We normally … try to get a guy like him to start the game, but we feel with the team that we selected … maybe we get momentum early in the game”
Then he got to the opposition, a Wallabies side that drew 28-all in Mendoza and has not lost since Les Kiss took over.
“They did beat Argentina, and they did smash Japan the other day, and they are playing [the] Bledisloe right after us”
The smashing was 56-17 in Townsville in August. The Bledisloe starts at Eden Park on Saturday 10 October, and Perth is Australia’s last Test before it.
“We would have loved to start Jasper, but we feel we need some security on the bench, to be honest with you.”
On this bench, security has a narrow meaning. It is five forwards and three backs, and Wiese is the only loose forward among the replacements.
Marco van Staden, Elrigh Louw and Paul de Villiers start, and de Villiers has four caps. If one of them goes off in the first quarter, the specialist cover for all three positions is the same man.
The number 8 who never used to speak
Erasmus kept going, and the answer turned into something else.
“Him accepting to play off the bench is already a sign”
“He’s actually talking more than he talked in the past, he’s actually really become a great leader in our team, and a guy that, who never spoke in the past, and in the last two years, you know, when he talks, he really talks sense.”
The public version of Wiese is all contact. He was a 9 in defeat at Ellis Park, the best player on the field in a game South Africa lost by 17, and he carried into the All Blacks for four straight weekends.
The talking has been on the record too, and it sounds the way his coach describes it. Asked before Baltimore about the mood on the shared flight with the All Blacks, he opened with “I’m not going to sugarcoat it.” Asked at the same session how the body copes, he said:
“After a game, always sore, but take a few painkillers on the Sunday and get the body going again on the Monday and then we rinse and repeat the week again.”
Short answers. Nothing dressed up. It is easy to hear what Erasmus is listening to.
Read also: what four Tests against New Zealand cost the men who played all of them, Wiese’s Sundays included.
He was also considered for the captaincy
Then Erasmus said the thing nobody had asked him.
“He was also an option as being a good captain for a game like this, he was also considered there”
The armband went to André Esterhuizen. In the Afrikaans half of the same press conference Erasmus came back to Wiese, saying the coaches could have started him and made him captain.
They wanted him somewhere else. “But then we felt needing him off the bench,” Erasmus said. The reason came in the next breath: “he’s a nice guy to correct it for us”.
Keeping a captaincy candidate back as the fixer says a lot about the job. The replacement who comes on at 60 minutes with the game slipping does a leader’s work without the armband, and he does it in a match already moving at full pace.
Fifty caps, and the start he gave up
Erasmus finished where the question started.
“We’re very proud of him, in reaching 50, we would have loved to start him, but he himself agreed that playing off the bench will be the best for us in this game.”
Wiese made his debut in 2021 at Loftus Versfeld and plays his club rugby in Japan for Urayasu D-Rocks. His 49th, in Baltimore ten days ago, was an 8.5 in the site’s ratings.
He himself agreed. That is the sign Erasmus meant.
Read next: Wiese was still running on 78 minutes in Baltimore when he helped swamp Will Jordan for the turnover Cameron Hanekom scored from.
Your turn: start him for his 50th, or keep him for the fix?
Two ways to see it. A 50th cap happens once, and a player who carried like Wiese did through four Tests against New Zealand has earned the anthem with the starting XV.
Or Erasmus is right, and the most useful thing Wiese can do in Perth is come on when it is going wrong. Which would you have done? Settle it below.
Frequently asked
How many caps does Jasper Wiese have?
Wiese wins his 50th Test cap for South Africa against Australia in Perth on Sunday 27 September, from the bench. He made his debut in 2021 at Loftus Versfeld.
Why is Jasper Wiese on the bench against Australia?
Rassie Erasmus said the side needs “some security on the bench”. Wiese is the only loose forward among the eight replacements, behind a starting back row of Paul de Villiers, Elrigh Louw and Marco van Staden.
Was Jasper Wiese considered for the Springboks captaincy?
Yes. Erasmus told reporters in Terrigal on Tuesday 22 September that Wiese “was also considered” for the captaincy in Perth. André Esterhuizen got the job.
