The plan is simple. Get a victory and a solid start to the Castle Lager Rugby Championship and there will be more leeway to bring in fresh, young talent in the next few games.
Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus revealed that the move to give young flyhalf Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu a chance against the Wallabies is more than just a calculated move. It is part of a broad plan that has two major objectives. One to accelerate and broaden the depth within the squad and secondly to prolong the careers of a number of double World Cup winners.
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Erasmus has been forthright about having the extra time he never had ahead of the 2019 and 2023 World Cup campaigns. In 2018 he arrived with just 18 months to prepare and in 2020 and 2021 a year was lost because of Covid and another because of the importance of the British and Irish Lions tour.
Erasmus said the decision to give Feinberg-Mngomezulu an opportunity wasn’t quite the changing of the guard, but definitely pointed to a sign of how the Boks would handle the next season or so of test matches.
“Well it is definitely a sign of the future, as we all say internally we can’t look too far ahead, we’ll forget the present, but we also can’t just look at the present and in the squad overall, I think there’s about nine guys in the squad that weren’t regulars prior to the World Cup last year when we rotated in,” Erasmus said.
“I wouldn’t say it is a changing of the guard, but it is giving opportunities while guys like Handre and Manie help nurture these younger guys. It’s Sacha’s fifth cap and ahead of the 2019 Rugby World Cup, we said we didn’t want to take a guy over with eight or nine caps so we have to build that experience.
“It’s well documented that there has never been a World Cup won where a fly-half was under 24 years old, I think Jonny Wilkson was the youngest. Rather blood a guy now and get some nice experience with a guy like Damian de Allende on his outside.”
Erasmus added that the same applied to players such as Elrigh Louw, who Erasmus wants to give two tests against the Wallabies before he will likely revert back to Jasper Wiese for the two All Black test matches.
“The same applies to the No 8 with Elrigh Louw, it’s not a change of the guard, it is a squad of 45 guys trying to win each test match and certainly with a hat on for the future but they have to earn their stripes to change the guard.”
And if the Boks win, the selection may even become more bold, allowing more young players to take their spots and earn a more permanent spot in the Bok set-up. All in all, while the Boks possess a host of double World Cup winners, the arrival of young blood needs exposure, and there is an unwritten rule of getting players to at least 30 test matches before the next World Cup.
Erasmus and his assistants have committed to this but need to see it through in a fashion that doesn’t disrupt the Boks momentum, and bring them the wrong sort of results.
At flyhalf, for instance, with Manie Libbok and Handre Pollard already established, and Damian Willemse also an option if needed, the team has good depth.
But developing Feinberg-Mngomezulu has only positives, while Jordan Hendrikse also waits in the wings having made his Bok debut earlier this season. Outside the squad a player like Siya Masuku can also still knock on the door.
“We do have a lot of options, but it’s because we as the selecting committee and the coaches made some brave choices and sometimes we lose matches to try and see how guys can go from one level to another level,” he explained.
“That’s why we had the SA A games, that’s also games that Sacha and other guys played and you get to learn the characters to understand the characters and that’s most important – the succession planning while trying to win.”
Erasmus said they were pleased with the way they integrated players into the squad since the 2023 World Cup victory.
“One of the big talking points for us as a team from the beginning of the season was that we need to get the balance right between selecting teams featuring youth and experience as we build toward towards the 2027 Rugby World Cup.
“We’re pleased with the way we’ve been able to integrate some of the young players into the squad this season and give them game time against top opposition.
“We rested several players against Portugal to ensure that we had a fresh squad for the Rugby Championship, while a few young players really grabbed the opportunity to show what they can do in the first four tests of the season.
“We’re excited to see what they have to offer against a team such as Australia which plays a vastly different style of rugby to that which we faced against Wales, Ireland and Portugal.
“Sacha and Ben-Jason showed proper class when they earned their chance to play this season and we are looking forward to seeing them in action against the Wallabies.”
The Boks face the Wallabies in the first of back-to-back tests this weekend in Brisbane, followed by another Rugby Championship game in Perth next weekend.