{"id":15112,"date":"2025-11-12T12:38:57","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T10:38:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/coach-plans-for-more-versatility-for-springboks-against-italy\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:27:27","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:27:27","slug":"coach-plans-for-more-versatility-for-springboks-against-italy","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/coach-plans-for-more-versatility-for-springboks-against-italy\/","title":{"rendered":"Coach plans for more versatility for Springboks against Italy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-family: var(--global--font-secondary); font-size: var(--global--font-size-base);\">Springbok Coach Rassie Erasmus might offer a glimpse of his plans for the future of his center pairing when South Africa take on Italy in Turin on Saturday.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The 22-year-old Ethan Hooker and 23-year-old Canan Moodie could be in the starting line up as Erasmus looks to broaden his players exposure to test match conditions.<\/p>\n<p>The Springboks\u2019 focus of developing versatility paid dividends in their victory against France, when they had to play with 14 men and everybody is buying into it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTrying to get myself into the team whether it\u2019s wing or center is what\u2019s important to me doesn\u2019t really matter and I\u2019m just trying to better myself as a player really. I love the fact that I can play both center and wing, so sticking to that versatility and developing my game in both areas is what\u2019s important to me,\u201d says Hooker.<\/p>\n<p>It also helps that the squad is a blend of youth and experience.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNever get complacent just always have something on your mind that you want to work on and better yourself and almost get addicted to better yourself every day. People like Damian have helped me a lot and I can feed off their experience,\u201d Hooker explains.<\/p>\n<p>The team announcement for Italy will be on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u2014SABC\u2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":14251,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-15112","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"The team announcement for Italy will be on Thursday.","published_date":null,"news_description":"The team announcement for Italy will be on Thursday.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/15112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/15112\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19491,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/15112\/revisions\/19491"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=15112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}