The Springboks will finish their first phase of the 2025 international season this weekend, and while they have achieved many of their goals, an imperfect performance against Italy in the first test in Pretoria meant they could not give as many caps to inexperienced players as they would have liked.
Yet, saying that, the Bok team will take a very different look in the next phase, as the team enters their defence of the Castle Lager Rugby Championship and starts preparing for their biggest test of the year - facing the All Blacks in New Zealand.
The Boks will take a different approach, mixing and matching their double World Cup-winning contingent with younger, up and coming stars over the next period, meaning the squads selected won’t always look as people would expect - but that is part of a larger plan.
There will be senior players rested for the two tests against Australia - in Johannesburg and Cape Town that kickstart the Rugby Champs - and then changes again made for the two away tests in Auckland and Wellington.
The Eden Park test is gearing up to be one of the biggest - if not the biggest - test of the year for the Springboks as a repeat of the 2023 World Cup final and at a ground where the All Blacks have last lost in 1994.
STRONGEST LINE-UP
If there was a test that Rassie Erasmus would want to play his strongest line-up, that would be it, and questions about just how much progress the younger players in the squad have made will be answered when those selections are made.
Boan Venter, Marnus van der Merwe and Neethling Fouche will make their Springbok debut this weekend 👏
— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) July 15, 2025
Coach Rassie explains the thinking behind his front row choice.
"If they can come through this, we'll know more about their test match potential." 🗣️#SSRugby pic.twitter.com/nr98xYMJmp
Erasmus said this week that 14 players had left the team - those who aren’t involved in Saturday’s test against Georgia - and they will return as needed.
The squad will reassemble next weekend and the 36 players to do duty against Australia will probably be named on Tuesday.
As always, if the Bok plans go fluidly, they move onto the next phase, but the performance at Loftus Versfeld - which Erasmus admitted had him “frustrated” and was not up to the Boks’ normal standards - meant that a number of young players, including Lions flanker Renzo du Plessis, the Hendrikse brothers, and Lions fullback Quan Horn, all had their next test call-ups put on ice as the Boks went for a bit more experience in certain positions.
PLANS HAVE CHANGED
“We always plan in the beginning of the year for the perfect scenario, but things always change,” Erasmus said on Tuesday at the team announcement.
“We would have loved to - and I still feel a bit bad about it - to give guys like Renzo (du Plessis), Jaden and Jordan (Hendrikse) and Quan Horn a run, because it was always part of the plans but unfortunately the hiccup in momentum we had in the first test against Italy, we had to rejig a little bit. I feel a bit bad we couldn’t stick to the original plans there.”
Erasmus explained how the squad will be selected for the next phases of the Rugby Championship.
“Some guys will be with us until tomorrow (Wednesday) and then some guys will have next week off and then get back together with us next Sunday.
"We will probably have a group of 36 for the first two rugby tests against Australia and then the guys who are left out of that group will be back for the tests against New Zealand.
“We are also managing the load of one or two older players where they may play in only one or two Australia games or one or two All Black games. We are trying to balance it out by taking it from Tier 2 teams to Tier 1 teams to some of the best in the world, which will be New Zealand.
SQUAD ANNOUNCEMENT NEXT WEEK
“So next Tuesday we will probably announce 36 players - it may be one more or a number less to go and play Australia and then bolster the side with a few players after that who have had rest. We then obviously go to the greatest rivalry and then we have Argentina here and at Twickenham.
“That will be the focus for the next six weeks. Then we will not build squad depth. There we will have fresh, in-shape, in form teams for those games.”
The New Zealand tests are the big games in the Rugby Championship, and are crucial to the Boks hopes of retaining their Rugby Championship crown. But they are all just one part of the bigger picture, and the results and performances will determine how the squad shapes up over the next few weeks.
And with 2027’s Rugby World Cup in mind, that may be more crucial in the long run.