Faf de Klerk is in our plans - Rassie Erasmus

Springboks head coach Rassie Erasmus has revealed that Yokohama Canon Eagles scrum-half Faf de Klerk remains in his plans despite leaving the double World Cup-winning veteran out of his Autumn Nations squad.

The Rugby Championship winners open their end-of-year tour against Eddie Jones’ Japan at Wembley Stadium in London on Saturday. 

Erasmus has picked seven-Japan based players in his starting line-up with a further two League One representatives among the replacements while de Klerk remains frozen out after falling out of favour during the Rugby Championship. 

The 34-year-old, who has fallen behind Cobus Reinach, Morné van den Berg and Grant Williams in South Africa’s pecking order for the number nine jersey, last featured for his country in July’s win over Georgia.  

He was not named in the Springboks’ original Rugby Championship squad but was called up to the group as additional cover ahead of the round three clash with arch-rivals New Zealand. 

“Faf is definitely part of our plans,” Erasmus said at a press conference in London. 

“We just felt that it would be better for him to get regular minutes at his club rather than sitting out during this window. They’ve got four warm-up games lined up this month and he’ll benefit more from that.” 

Picture courtesy of JRLO

New head coach Leon MacDonald’s Yokohama side have defeated Suntory Sungoliath and Honda Heat in their opening pre-season games this month and have five remaining warm-up games before opening their League One campaign on Sunday 14 December against Kwagga Smith’s Shizuoka Blue Revs.

Yokohama travel to play division two side Kyuden Voltex on Sunday before hosting former League One champions Saitama Wild Knights on 15 November. 

Seven days later, Yokohama welcomes TJ Perenara’s Black Rams Tokyo to Canon Sports Park before visiting Samu Kerevi’s Urayasu D-Rocks on 29 November. 

The Kanagawa-based side will conclude their pre-season schedule at home to Honda on 5 December. 

Japan-bound de Klerk’s Yokohama teammate Jesse Kriel starts against Japan as he reforms his familiar midfield partnership with Saitama’s Damian de Allende. 

Kubota hooker Malcolm Marx, Saitama lock Lood de Jager and Honda’s Franco Mostert – who moves into the back row as the openside flanker – all start along with Urayasu number eight Jasper Wiese.  

Suntory’s Cheslin Kolbe starts as full-back having played there on four occasions for his club side during the 2023-2024 season. 

Shizuoka captain Kwagga Smith and Kintetsu Liners newcomer Manie Libbok are both among the replacements. 

Erasmus explained that the anticipated Japan fixture, which is being played outside of World Rugby’s Test window, was scheduled with his Japan-based players in mind. 

“Unless they’ve been playing regularly for us, the guys in Japan wouldn’t have had much rugby recently,” said Erasmus. 

“In previous end-of-year tours, against teams like France and Ireland, it sometimes felt like we started slowly because the Japanese-based players hadn’t played much. This time we wanted to fix that.”