For a moment it seemed that Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus had said that one of the four newcomers to his team for Saturday’s clash with the Barbarians had been working out at a “dance farm”.
The truth was far from that though, for what was meant was “Daan’s farm”, and from what was described it doesn’t sound like a picnic.
The Daan in question is Bok scrum coach Daan Human, who is becoming a bit of a legend within the national team environment and has acquired guru status.
The player in question was the Emirates Lions outsized tighthead prop Asenathi Ntlabakanye, who has shed 16 kilograms over a period of time and that is mainly driven by time on Human’s farm in the Free State.
The 26-year-old has been on Erasmus’s radar for some time but has accelerated his rise to international potential in recent times due to the hard work he has put in.
“It is a nice thing that you guys (the media) are talking so much about the next World Cup squad, which players will still be around and which won’t. We never had that in 2018 and 2022 (ahead of the 2019 and 2023 RWCs),” said Erasmus.
“We do have succession planning in place and Asenathi was a player that we spotted as a player of potential and decided to work with when Chean Roux was still the national under-20 coach. We had a programme we gave to him then but it didn’t succeed. However, we don’t ever give up on a player that has proper talent.
“The Lions CEO Rudolf Straeuli told us we could work with Asenathi, and Daan said that he could go to him on his farm. He started to go to Daan’s farm whenever there was a break in the Lions’ schedule and work with Daan there. Then we were helped a bit by the fact that the Lions were knocked out of the URC early as he then had three weeks on the farm before we went into camp.
“I don’t want to go into specifics but we have done this with players before. About three or four of them. Front row players specifically because we struggle to give the personal attention that those guys might need when we are in an alignment camp. Asenathi started benefitting from his visits to Daan and the last three weeks would have benefited him even more.”
🗣️ "In Asenathi we've got somebody who we see has an unbelievable touch and feel for the game."
— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) June 24, 2025
Rassie Erasmus says the Springboks have been tracking the Lions prop for a number of years, who has also been working with coach Daan on the farm in Bloem 👏 pic.twitter.com/AjlNDEDLuH
WEIGHT LOSS IS HAPPENING
Ntlabakanye was weighing in at well over 150 kilograms at one stage but he told a rugby magazine recently that he had dropped to 144 and according to Erasmus he is now down to 141kg.
Obviously with a prop there has to be a fine balance between losing just enough and losing too much as for obvious reasons it wouldn’t help his career for a front row forward to be turned into someone built to win the Comrades Marathon.
“Frans Malherbe is not a front page model but is considered one of the best in the world in his position. Asenathi is also not the most athletic guy, but he has an excellent feel for the game. It is the same with Ox (Nche), he has an unbelievable feel for the game.
"When we started looking at Asenathi we tracked his tackle rates and they were up there with the other guys.
“So with the help of Rudolf and Cash (Lions coach Cash van Rooyen) he went to Daan’s farm whenever he has had a a break and he has now lost 16 kilograms.”
Ntlabakanye is joined by his former Lions teammate Vincent Tshituka, who now plays for the Hollywoodbets Sharks, in playing his first game for the Boks against the Barbarians.
🗣️ "I remember seeing Pieter-Steph walk in and thinking 'that's one of the greats right there!'"
— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) June 24, 2025
Vincent Tshituka will start in the seven jersey against the Barbarians on Saturday and reflects on his experience in the Springbok camp so far 🇿🇦 pic.twitter.com/rDf50h2FFy
The game is not officially a test, so there will be no caps awarded, but that duo as well as reserve front row forwards Marnus van der Merwe (hooker) and Neethling Fouche (prop) will get their first feel of the Bok jersey in a game.
EXPERIENCED PLAYERS TO HELP NEWCOMERS ADAPT
They are part of a strong team, and the star-studded Barbarians team that was announced earlier in the day justifies Erasmus’s decision to sprinkle experienced international campaigners in among both the newcomers and the several players who have played test rugby but are still in a relatively embryonic stage of their international careers.
“If you look at the team that has been selected you will see that we have a fullback in Aphelele (Fassi) who has done well but hasn’t played that many tests, and then at flyhalf we have Sacha (Feinberg-Mngomezulu) who we all know about but who has played just eight tests,” said Erasmus.
“We are seeing Jean-Luc du Preez back for the first time in a while (at No 8) and he doesn’t have that many caps, Vincent is uncapped and lock Jean Kleyn, although he was part of our World Cup win in France, has just seven caps.
“So what we want to do is grow the experience of those guys while also having experienced guys around them so we can have a good chance of winning this game.
"If there are stages where Sacha, Morne (Van den Bergh, the two capped scrumhalf) and Aphelele are struggling we have experienced guys like Damian de Allende, Jesse (Kriel) and Cheslin (Kolbe) there to help them out.”
Erasmus explained that players who had been involved in finals last weekend, and thus only joined the Bok camp in the last 10 days, were not considered for selection, with just one exception.
“We do have a bit of a problem at loosehead prop at present with guys like Ntuthuko Mchunu and Gerhard Steenekamp out injured so we needed to call on Jan-Hendrik Wessels (who will be on the reserve bench for the Barbarians game).”
𝐁𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆: Rassie Erasmus has named the first Springbok line-up of 2025 that will face the Barbarians in Cape Town this Saturday 🇿🇦 pic.twitter.com/5QCKGvEb09
— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) June 24, 2025