Eddie Jones: ‘Difficult decisions’ are coming for Rassie Erasmus and he knows it
Springboks head coach Rassie Erasmus and an inset of Eddie Jones.
Eddie Jones believes that Rassie Erasmus has some ‘difficult decisions’ to make with his ageing Springboks squad.
Except for a handful of retirements and current injuries, the Boks squad has remained largely the same, with a core group of players having won the last two Rugby World Cups.
The likes of Eben Etzebeth, Siya Kolisi, Willie Le Roux, Franco Mostert, Bongi Mbonambi, Cobus Reinach and others have been consistently selected in squads since 2018 but are now well into their 30s.
Tipping point
Jones believes that the squad is now in a transitional period where the next generation of Boks are pushing their way into the set-up, and while experience remains crucial at international rugby, Erasmus needs to usher out some of the elder statesmen in order to renovate the squad.
The experienced coach was asked the question at what point do South Africa cull the older players and freshen up the team, which reminded Jones of a conversation he had with ex-Brisbane Broncos coach Wayne Bennett early in his career.
“I remember when I first started coaching, I went and saw Wayne Bennett, who was fantastic at the Broncos, in being able to rejuvenate his team consistently. He said, ‘I’ll give you one piece of advice, always let a player go one year earlier than one year late’. And I did that at Brumbies, and in essence, it is right, but in international rugby, it’s a little bit different because experience is so important and particularly for forwards – I think experienced forwards are so, so valuable,” he said on the Rugby Unity podcast.
“But there’s a tipping point in any team when you’ve got too many old players and you’ve got to look at renovating and rebuilding. And when you haven’t got enough old players, you’ve got to keep them for a bit longer.”
Ageing Springboks won’t be pushed out
Erasmus and his coaching team have repeatedly stated that age doesn’t factor too much into their selections, as they will continue to select players who don’t drop their performance and remain top operators in their positions.
He has also explained that you cannot plan a player’s career around a Rugby World Cup but added that they are keeping an eye on when they expect to the dip to come as they continue their succession planning.
“You can’t plan a guy’s career just around the World Cup because if he’s still good enough and he’s still number one, two or three in that position but he might retire in 2026 it will be very unfair not to pick him anymore just because he ends in 2026,” he said in March this year.
“So it’s a bit of both [planning for the future and winning now] and if you look at that squad depth chart or succession planning, I think there’s a nice spread of older guys – you want to put them in the red column – and amber guys between 25 and 30 and then younger guys between 20 and 25 out of the 80 to 84 in total.”
Rassie Erasmus: ‘You can’t plan a guy’s career around the World Cup’
In July, assistant coach Mzwandile Stick echoed those sentiments.
“It would be unfair for coaches to force players to retire,” he said.
“Our job is to coach the players, and the more that the players produce [the more they stick around].”
While the coaches won’t force players into retirement, Jones says that the time to make the tough decisions is fast approaching and some of those calls will be made for them, due to injuries.
Prop Steven Kitshoff could well have gone to the 2027 World Cup in Australia had it not been for his life-threatening injury that ended his career prematurely, and there are concerns that his long-time team-mate Frans Malherbe could be the victim of a similar fate.
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Value of experience
The 34-year-old is currently sidelined with a neck injury and hasn’t played since March, and is not expected to play again this year.
“They are definitely getting to that stage where they’re going to have to make decisions, and some of the decisions are being made for them,” Jones explained.
“They are missing Frans Malherbe at the moment, who’s been an absolute cornerstone of their scrum for the last two Rugby World Cups – he’s out now with a neck injury, and we are unsure whether he’ll come back.
“The hooker Bongi [Mbonambi] has got injury concerns, but they are going to have to make some big decisions, and they’re going to be difficult decisions for them because whenever you drop an iconic player, it causes a lot of criticism because people want to keep them, but at some stage you have got to move them on and they are getting to that stage.
“Rassie showed his hand in the first Test against Australia, where he picked a younger team, and it didn’t quite work out. He then went back to the tried and true.”
While Jones says that these tough decisions are coming for Erasmus, he does understand the need for experienced players, singling out veteran lock Mostert, who the Japan boss feels doesn’t get the praise he deserves.
“Rassie brought Franco Mostert back [for the second Test], and you think about the South African team – no one ever talks about Mostert, but every time he plays, they put in a good tough performance because he’s one of those glue players,” he said.
“He just does his job, he works hard, cleans, tackles – there’s nothing like he plays at about 106km/h, but he’s just such a good tough player.
“Those decisions are coming for Rassie, and he knows that. ”
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