Some suggested that the Springboks had peaked after they won the Rugby Championship and World Cup titles in the same 2019 season.

By late 2023, however, the same group had added a British & Irish Lions series victory as well as a record-breaking fourth world title.

It’s tempting to believe that the triumph in Paris represented the high watermark for South African rugby. After all, no team in history has won back-to-back World Cups and a Lions series in a five-year period, and it will be a long time yet before another side replicates the feat.

Yet here we are, more than a third of the way into the first season of the new four-year cycle, and the Boks are better placed than ever to win in the short and long term.

Their immediate focus is the 2024 Rugby Championship title, but as recent selections and a move towards a more attacking strategy indicate, they are building towards Rugby World Cup 2027, where they will attempt to complete an unprecedented hat-trick of titles.

Long-term investments paying off

Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu has come to represent the new generation of Boks.

Rassie Erasmus has selected the 22-year-old utility back for all six Tests in 2024, and named the youngster at No 10 for two crucial games against the Wallabies in Australia.

While the player deserves high praise for making the most of his recent opportunities, credit must also go to the coaches for managing and nurturing an important talent over two seasons.

Stormers coach John Dobson gave the former Junior Bok captain a chance in the latter stages of the 2022 United Rugby Championship. Erasmus and Jacques Nienaber obviously liked what they saw, and selected the youngster for the end-of-year tour to Europe, where he started a midweek match for the South Africa A side.

That was an important tour for the Boks, as big wins against Italy and England provided them with momentum heading into the 2023 season.

Less was made of the SA A matches at the time, but according to the coaches, these fixtures gave them the chance to work with younger players who had the potential to add value to the senior team down the line.

Seven of those SA A players – Elrigh Louw, Ruan Nortje, Ntuthuko Mchunu, Grant Williams, Phepsi Buthelezi, Feinberg-Mngomezulu and Andre-Hugo Venter – have made their senior Bok debuts over the past three seasons, while others – long-serving “squad players” such as Thomas du Toit and Marco van Staden – have bolstered the team’s depth.

Regular blooding of talent since 2018

As Erasmus has stated, there’s always been a plan to manage and monitor these players, with a view to harnessing their talent in future.

One could go back even further, to 2018, when Erasmus was first appointed as head coach, to gain a better idea of how he kick-started the development plan for a wider group of players.

Over the course of the 2018 and 2019 Test seasons, Erasmus gave 23 players their Test debuts. Cheslin Kolbe and Makazole Mapimpi quickly became first-choice, while others such as Ox Nché and Kwagga Smith had to wait until the following four-year cycle for regular game time.

Erasmus and Nienaber continued to search for new talent between the start of the 2021 season and the 2023 World Cup. Eighteen players made their debuts, with Kurt-Lee Arendse, Manie Libbok and Jasper Wiese travelling to the global tournament as first-choice in their positions.

Throughout that six-year period, the coaches struck a balance between experience and youth. That experience told in the latter stages of big matches, although the “newer” players certainly made their mark, if you recall Mapimpi and Kolbe’s tries in the 2019 World Cup final, and Arendse’s sparkling performances across the 2023 tournament.

Shift in balance demands action

That said, there were a lot of older players in the squad that won RWC 2023, and it’s highly unlikely that all of those veterans will press on to the next tournament in 2027.

Which brings us to the current push to blood new players and combinations.

In this four-year cycle, Erasmus is under pressure to develop younger players as quickly as possible, and to ensure that they travel to the next World Cup with the necessary experience to fulfil the team’s objective of another title.

A clutch of younger players travelled to France last year and didn’t feature in the playoffs. We can expect the likes of Jaden Hendrikse, Canan Moodie and Williams to play greater roles at the next global tournament.

Read more: Rassie the great tinkerer has created a Bok system where the team is everything

Beyond the group that has some World Cup experience, there is a new set of youngsters who have been given a chance to impress.

Erasmus has already given 11 players their Test debuts this season, and has suggested that more will be blooded in the coming months.

It’s been interesting to note how Erasmus has managed these younger players.

Feinberg-Mngomezulu was eased into Test rugby, playing his first four Tests from the bench, before receiving two starting opportunities against Australia.

Salmaan Moerat, who played three Tests in 2022 before suffering a season-ending injury in 2023, returned to the squad earlier this year. In a bid to develop Eben Etzebeth’s long-term successor at No 4 as well as another leadership option, Erasmus entrusted Moerat with the captaincy for Tests against Portugal in Bloemfontein and Australia in Perth.

More than a few eyebrows were raised when Jan-Hendrik Wessels was picked to make his debut at loosehead prop against Portugal, given that the 23-year-old has played much of his franchise rugby at hooker.

Erasmus believes that Wessels has the potential to excel at both positions, and that this versatility will be an asset to the Boks in a World Cup squad scenario where player numbers are limited (the lock-cum-flank Ben-Jason Dixon could also add value in this manner). More recently, the coach reiterated his faith in Wessels when he backed the youngster to start at No 1 against the Wallabies in Perth.

Overall, Erasmus has endeavoured to get the mix right, blending a number of World Cup winners with a host of newcomers and others that have been on the fringes for several seasons.

Louw was handed his first Test start in Brisbane, while Bulls teammate Nortje received the same honour ahead of the clash in Perth. Both players made their international debuts in 2022.

Don’t forget about the 30 in SA…

By the end of the season, Erasmus will have a lot of answers regarding the aptitude of the individuals and ultimately the depth of the team.

The numbers suggest that the Boks are sitting pretty in this regard.

Thirty-three players were selected to tour Australia for the first part of the Rugby Championship, while another group of 30 remained in South Africa.

The latter group could be divided into two equal parts.

The first comprises the up-and-coming players, who have already played Test rugby in 2024 – Jordan Hendrikse, Ruan Venter and Edwill van der Merwe – or have been part of the broader training squad in recent months – Siya Masuku, Mpilo Gumede, Ruben van Heerden and others.

The second part includes more established Boks, who are either sidelined with serious injuries, recovering from short-term ailments, serving suspensions or playing for their respective provinces in the Currie Cup.

The names on the latter list tell you everything you need to know about South Africa’s depth.

What other side can win Test matches staged overseas without 12 World Cup winners in tow? Steven Kitshoff, Trevor Nyakane, Lood de Jager, Franco Mostert, Jean Kleyn, Deon Fourie, Wiese, Faf de Klerk, André Esterhuizen, Jaden Hendrikse, Damian Willemse and Moodie are among those who have remained at home.

Some of the aforementioned veterans will return from injury and bolster the team when it returns to South Africa to tackle the All Blacks on 31 August and 7 September.

But don’t be surprised if some of the newcomers who have dazzled Down Under are retained, and if the Boks continue to pursue a more balanced approach as a result. DM

Flipboard | Bloemfontein News