Rassie’s 'unlucky players' still have plenty of opportunities

When you are choosing a squad of 35 and you have as much depth as South African rugby has developed in the past while, it is inevitable that there will be many questions and some unhappiness about quality players left out who appear to be deserving.

Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus himself admitted that there were “several unlucky players who could easily have made the touring squad” for the end-of-year trip to Scotland, England and Wales. He didn’t name them, but a list of names is easy to conjure up. But when you look at the squad and you note that there is a limit to how many players can go on what after all is only a three-match tour, it is hard to quibble with the group that Erasmus has come up with.

That is particularly so if you note that the space for potential newcomers was shrunk by the return from injury of several frontline players - most notably Damian Willemse, RG Snyman and Franco Mostert. The players who took full grasp of the opportunity offered them in the southern hemisphere season have been included.

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For instance, while Willemse has rejoined veteran stalwart Willie le Roux among the fullbacks, that didn’t mean that Aphelele Fassi, who was one of the standout less experienced international players in the southern hemisphere international season, lost his place. The Sharks No 15 has been rewarded, as has lock Ruan Nortje for the progress he has made in the absence of Mostert and Snyman, even though those two players are fit again.

LOUW TOOK HIS CHANCE

Ben-Jason Dixon enjoyed a meteoric rise in favour during the southern internationals and doesn’t find a place now, but then who would you put him ahead of when the loose-forwards in the group are skipper Siya Kolisi, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Jasper Wiese, Kwagga Smith, Marco van Staden and Elrigh Louw.

By the end of the southern season, Louw had done enough to cement his place, while Dixon was the first to admit that he didn’t make full use of the opportunity offered to him when he started the Johannesburg Castle Lager Rugby Championship test against the All Blacks. Erasmus said he would give him another chance, and he did - against Argentina in Argentina.

Dixon wasn’t selected for the following week’s game in Mbombela, and was released to his franchise, the DHL Stormers, during the course of the buildup. Was that an indication Dixon had shrunk in Erasmus’ estimation? We don’t know, but what we do know is that there will be opportunities for players like Dixon again next year.

Erasmus’ squad selection for the tour is a clear indication that he wants to end the trend of the world champions returning from their November trips to Europe feeling that they have underachieved. The emphasis on winning all the games should be welcomed. With Georgia and Italy the visitors to South Africa in the July window next year, that arguably offers Erasmus much more space to experiment than was the case in 2024.

POWER SHIFT MEANS ROOM TO EXPERIMENT IN CHAMPIONSHIP

It also needs to be recognised that the shift in power in world rugby means the opportunities to expand depth in the southern hemisphere Rugby Championship have also been widened. The Pumas did shock the Boks in Argentina in September, but New Zealand are now arguably the only nation in that competition against which you could say the Boks will be taking a massive risk if they spread the selection net in those games.

Erasmus did experiment a little in the Johannesburg game at the end of August and the Boks nearly came unstuck. The need to be at full strength against the All Blacks will be accentuated next season by the fact that both games will be played on New Zealand soil. There can’t be any messing about there.

But given that the Boks experimented away against the Wallabies in this year’s Championship, and won both games comfortably, there’s reason to feel that Erasmus can mix up his selections in home games against Australia and expect to win with a degree of comfort, as they did when the Wallabies were hosted at Loftus at the start of the last World Cup year.

IRELAND AND ENGLAND DEMAND FULL-STRENGTH TEAMS

Next year’s November tour features a game against Ireland, which the Boks will be going all out to win after this season’s home series ended in an unsatisfactory draw. The Boks will be at full strength for that game in Dublin, just like we can expect them to be at full strength against England in London next month.

In a four-year cycle where the Boks are building up to a World Cup played in the northern hemisphere, there’d be justification for critics to ask if an opportunity to get players acclimatised for what they could expect at the culmination of the cycle was being missed. But the next World Cup is in Australia, where Salmaan Moerat, the apparent alternate captain to Kolisi at this point, has already led his country onto the field and where several young players, such as Jan-Hendrik Wessels and others, have experienced being part of winning Bok teams.

We are in an era where most home-based South African players get enough experience of playing in the north through this country’s participation in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship, the Investec Champions Cup and the EPCR Challenge Cup. That was something Erasmus noted in explaining his selections and the move away from any emphasis on youth.

“Our URC teams have all travelled to the northern hemisphere already, so many of these players have been exposed to the conditions as well as some of the players they will face in November, which is certainly beneficial to us,” said the Bok coach.

URC MAKES NORTHERN EXPOSURE LESS OF AN IMPERATIVE

Indeed, there is a level of familiarity with the northern conditions and northern game growing among the South African players, and there isn’t as much need to expose players to the challenge of playing there as there was when Super Rugby was the bread and butter of local franchise players.

Erasmus has done the right thing this year by rewarding URC form, and one instance of that in this squad is a player who has played quite a bit for the Boks already - Andre Esterhuizen. The Sharks inside centre did not feature in the Rugby Championship but he has been outstanding in the URC and is back in the squad.

A total of 49 players have taken the field for the Boks in 2024 and 35 played in the Championship. The growth of depth has been noteworthy, and while expanding his options, Erasmus has kept the Boks on a winning footing - they won the Championship at a canter, and have lost just two games this season, both of them by a solitary point in games where there was context that explained the defeat.

While the return to a squad dominated by World Cup-winning Boks might look like a backward step, it isn’t. It all fits into the plan, and a successful tour will create the platform that will give Erasmus more leeway to experiment in 2025.

SPRINGBOK SQUAD FOR THE CASTLE LAGER OUTGOING TOUR:

Props: Thomas du Toit (Bath), Vincent Koch (Hollywoodbets Sharks), Frans Malherbe (DHL Stormers), Ox Nche (Hollywoodbets Sharks), Gerhard Steenekamp (Vodacom Bulls).

Hookers: Malcolm Marx (Kubota Spears), Bongi Mbonambi (Hollywoodbets Sharks).

Locks: Eben Etzebeth (Hollywoodbets Sharks), Franco Mostert (Honda Heat), Ruan Nortje (Vodacom Bulls), RG Snyman (Leinster).

Loose forwards: Pieter-Steph du Toit (Toyota Verblitz), Siya Kolisi (captain, Hollywoodbets Sharks), Elrigh Louw (Vodacom Bulls), Kwagga Smith (Shizuoka Blue Revs), Marco van Staden (Vodacom Bulls), Jasper Wiese (Urayasu D-Rocks).

Utility forward: Jan-Hendrik Wessels (Vodacom Bulls).

Scrumhalves: Jaden Hendrikse (Hollywoodbets Sharks), Cobus Reinach (Montpellier), Grant Williams (Hollywoodbets Sharks).

Flyhalves: Manie Libbok (DHL Stormers), Handre Pollard (Leicester Tigers).

Centres: Lukhanyo Am (Hollywoodbets Sharks), Damian de Allende (Wild Knights), Andre Esterhuizen (Hollywoodbets Sharks), Jesse Kriel (Canon Eagles).

Outside backs: Kurt-Lee Arendse (Vodacom Bulls), Aphelele Fassi (Hollywoodbets Sharks), Cheslin Kolbe (Suntory Sungoliath), Willie le Roux (Vodacom Bulls), Makazole Mapimpi (Hollywoodbets Sharks), Canan Moodie (Vodacom Bulls), Damian Willemse (DHL Stormers).