All Blacks great: Springboks have got 150 Test-ready players
Springboks boss Rassie Erasmus and an inset of All Blacks head coach Dave Rennie.
Murray Mexted has claimed that the Springboks have got almost four times the depth of the All Blacks following the opening two games of their South African tour.
Boks boss Rassie Erasmus has become renowned for rotating his side but he has managed to do so while also winning Tests and keeping performances at a high level.
As a result, the back-to-back world champions have built plenty of depth in their ranks, putting them in excellent shape looking towards the 2027 Rugby World Cup.
Erasmus has been in the job eight years, however, while new All Blacks boss Dave Rennie has only worked with his group for two months.
He is therefore looking to fast-track that process and brought an initial training squad of 44 to the Republic in order to assess where they stand looking towards the global tournament.
Rassie’s ‘ambition’
“You look at the depth of South African rugby, the ambition of Rassie has been to develop as many players as he can, he’s done a really, really good job,” Mexted told the DSPN podcast with Martin Devlin.
“Off the top of my head, I would say looking at those two games, they’ve probably got 150 players that could play Test match rugby at the highest level.
“New Zealand, how many would we have? This is debatable as everybody listening will have a figure, but I reckon we’ve got 40 who could play Test match rugby against the Springboks.”
The All Blacks played a second-string in their tour opener and they struggled before a late surge enabled them to see off the Stormers 38-21.
They were better against the Sharks as more of their first choice players took to the field with New Zealand sealing a 54-0 triumph on Tuesday.
This weekend Rennie has opted to once again to give the fringe members of the squad an opportunity when they take on the Bulls in Pretoria.
“It’s not hypothetical because on this tour we will find that out. As soon as we play on the highveld, which is the next game, that will expose a hell of a lot more,” Mexted said.
“It is still altitude and it is a big adjustment to play 80 minutes if you’ve never played at altitude before – it’s pretty bloody hard actually.
“There’s a bit of criticism at the moment of the South African teams dragging out the scrums and the lineouts, and slowing down the game, but I think it will be the All Blacks doing that when they get to the highveld because it will be a bit of a shock.”
Building the All Blacks’ depth
Rennie’s main aim will be to win the Test series against the Springboks but the head coach will also deem it a success if the All Blacks can find players who are capable of playing at the highest level.
“There will be players that will lift their level in South Africa and others that will not,” Mexted added.
“To me a [Luke] Jacobson is the best example of that. Before they played in the home series, Jacobson was one of those players that you would think was right on the edge of whether he would be picked in the squad or not.
“You didn’t think he would be in the starting line-up, but he’s really proven a point to me and he’s the man at the moment as far as the loose forwards are concerned and that’s fantastic.
“People do rise to the occasion. Some people have that ability to rise and some people are at their maximum.”