Player development has been Rassie Erasmus’s priority since he was appointed Springbok rugby coach in 2018. It goes along with the important corollaries of results and transformation.
Erasmus favoured a large squad of players from the outset, and sought to develop several options in each position while striving for a healthy balance between young guns and seniors.
Fast forward to the present, where the seeds sowed by Erasmus during those early days continue to bear fruit. Over the past eight years the Springboks have won back-to-back World Cups, two Rugby Championship titles and a series against the British & Irish Lions.
More recently, the world’s top-ranked side thrashed the Barbarians, Italy (twice) and Georgia to extend their winning streak to eight matches.
While the Bulls, Lions, Sharks and Stormers continue to struggle with the new demands of the European Champions Cup and United Rugby Championship, there is no shortage of talent in South Africa. Schools rugby is booming and the national age-group teams are thriving.
Indeed, July 19 was a red-letter day for South African rugby, as the Boks thumped Georgia 55-10 in Mbombela, while the Junior Boks beat their New Zealand counterparts 23-15 in the World Rugby under-20 championship final to end a 13-year wait for the trophy. The upshot is that, for the first time, South Africa holds the senior and junior world titles simultaneously.
Credit must go to Junior Boks coach Kevin Foote and high-performance general manager Dave Wessels. Foote navigated the team through a challenging under-20 Rugby Championship campaign. Wessels, backed by Erasmus, was appointed in March 2024 to close the gap between age-group and professional rugby.
Erasmus implemented SA Rugby’s elite pathway and development programme in 2014, while he was the union’s high-performance manager. The Boks have reaped the benefits of this system — with Damian Willemse, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and many others coming through the ranks.
This is particularly relevant at a time of much talk about Erasmus’s future. While he is contracted to the Boks until the end of the 2027 World Cup in Australia, he may remain with the team for the following four-year cycle, which will culminate at the global tournament in 2031 in the US. (He turns 53 in November.)
It’s worth remembering that Pieter-Steph du Toit, Handré Pollard and Steven Kitshoff won the junior title in 2012, before going on to win the World Cup in Japan seven years later. Perhaps current under-20 stars such as scrumhalf Haashim Pead, winger Cheswill Jooste and blindside flanker Bathobele Hlekani will repeat the feat in 2031, under the guidance of an older and even wiser Erasmus.
Right now, Erasmus will be satisfied that his most recent selections and management strategies have improved the national team’s depth. The Bok coach promised to use all 46 players in the squad across the four matches staged in June and July, and made good on his word. As many as 39 players featured in two or more matches, as Erasmus rotated the team regularly, while seven rookies — flanker Vincent Tshituka, tighthead prop Asenathi Ntlabakanye, utility players Ethan Hooker and Cobus Wiese, as well as front-rankers Boan Venter, Marnus van der Merwe and Neethling Fouché — represented the Boks for the first time.
There were recalls for fullback Willemse and lock Lood de Jager, who hadn’t featured for the national side since 2023 because of serious injuries, as well as a move to give fringe players with 15 or fewer caps more game time. Edwill van der Merwe, who has been behind Cheslin Kolbe and Kurt-Lee Arendse in the winger queue for the better part of two seasons, made the most of his starting opportunities, scoring three tries in two games.
The leadership group was given the chance to grow, with veteran centre Jesse Kriel standing in for injured captain Siya Kolisi in the first two matches, and lock Salmaan Moerat leading the side in the second Test against Italy. Erasmus wasn’t afraid to rotate his flyhalves, with Pollard, Manie Libbok and the precocious Feinberg-Mngomezulu receiving opportunities to call the shots from that all-important position.
Some might suggest that Erasmus could afford to gamble and experiment in a series where the stakes were relatively low. There is some truth in this when you consider the composite nature of the Barbarians, the fact that Italy are, traditionally speaking, one of the weakest teams in the Six Nations, and Georgia’s World Rugby ranking (11th).
Nevertheless, the Boks racked up some big numbers, beating the Barbarians 54-7, Italy 42-24 and 45-0, and Georgia 55-10.
The attack — fine-tuned by former All Blacks flyhalf Tony Brown, an assistant coach who has added another layer to the game plan since joining the management team in 2024 — scored 28 tries in total, while the defence limited the opposition to five.
Erasmus changed his team in a weekly rotation, and there were moments across the series where a lack of synergy and intensity was exposed
Erasmus changed his team in a weekly rotation, and there were moments across the series where a lack of synergy and intensity was exposed.
The Boks conceded a long-range maul try in the first Test against Italy in Pretoria, and their defence in the second half of that match — 21 points and three tries conceded — left a lot to be desired. The breakdown was an issue across the three Tests, and this will need to be addressed ahead of the more challenging fixtures in the Rugby Championship.
The experimentation extended beyond squad management, as Erasmus introduced several trick plays and tactical variations.
André Esterhuizen was included on the bench for the game against the Barbarians in Cape Town, and was expected to feature in his preferred position of inside centre during the latter stages of the match. As it happened, Erasmus deployed the 1.93-metre, 116kg juggernaut at flank, much to the surprise of Barbarians coach Robbie Deans. With six fresh “forwards” on the field, the Boks continued to dominate their opponents at the set pieces and collisions, and proceeded to lay the platform for an emphatic victory.
While the “hybrid player” Esterhuizen move prompted a buzz in the wider rugby community, Erasmus’s next two innovations — introduced in the second Test against Italy in Gqeberha — sparked a clamorous debate.
From the first kickoff, Libbok kicked short to Esterhuizen, an infringement that resulted in a scrum for Italy. Some hailed it as a pragmatic tactic by the Boks, given their strength at the set piece, while others said it was not in the spirit of the game. Later, Erasmus suggested that Italy’s illegal scrum feeds — which deny opponents a fair contest — deserve similar scrutiny.
The biggest tactical statement, however, was made later in the game at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, when the Bok forwards lifted lock Ruan Nortjé from a position in the middle of the field, as if in a lineout, and set up a maul. The move — which Erasmus pinched from an under-14 team at Paul Roos Gymnasium in Stellenbosch — yielded two tries for the Boks over the course of the game, and served as a message to their upcoming opponents. While they are unlikely to use the same play in the Rugby Championship, the Boks will have a few tricks up their sleeve.
During the international window, most of the other southern hemisphere sides delivered a series of underwhelming results.
The All Blacks hammered an understrength French side 3-0 in the series staged in New Zealand, without getting out of third gear. A lacklustre Wallabies team scraped past Fiji, before losing 27-19 to the British & Irish Lions in the first Test of the series and also in the second. After beating the Lions 28-24 in Dublin, Argentina went on to lose both home Tests against a weakened England.
The Boks will be favourites to win their Rugby Championship Tests against the Wallabies, in Joburg on August 16 and in Cape Town a week later. Australia haven’t won a Test in South Africa since 2011 and, given their form, are unlikely to end that drought next month.
That said, the Boks shouldn’t take those battles against the Wallabies for granted, but will be expected to claim five log points from each game.
The Rugby Championship will be a lot tougher to win this year, given that the most demanding Tests against the All Blacks will be in New Zealand — in Auckland on September 6 and in Wellington a week later.
The Boks will be gunning for a first win at Eden Park since 1937, while the All Blacks will be looking to extend their 50-Test unbeaten run against all comers at the famous venue, where their last defeat was in 1994.
If the Boks come through those fixtures in New Zealand with the necessary results and log points, and go on to beat Argentina in later matches in Durban and London, they will become the first South African team to successfully defend their Rugby Championship title.
Whisper it, for there is still a lot of rugby to play, but it could be another season to remember for Erasmus’s Boks.
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