Rassie Erasmus: ‘It has been tough to keep winning but also blooding youngsters’
Springboks captain Siya Kolisi and an inset of head coach Rassie Erasmus.
Head coach Rassie Erasmus has hit out at the notion that the Springboks have an ageing squad, explaining that he is slowly evolving the team.
He argues that he can’t stop selecting veteran and experienced players if they continue to perform at the highest level, but is well aware that some of these players need to be moved on and replaced eventually. Still, the head coach is not pleased about the narrative around the back-to-back World Cup-winning team.
Erasmus has cast a wide net since taking over the head coaching duties from Jacques Nienaber following the 2023 tournament and has called up six uncapped players to his touring squad for the November internationals, five of which are younger than 21 years old.
Rassie rubbishes ageing Springboks claim
Speaking to the media after naming his matchday 23 for the clash against Italy on Monday, the Springboks head coach was asked what had changed over the past year with regard to the Springboks.
“Well, everybody loves to beat the drum that the team is getting older,” the head coach began.
“I mean, it’s unbelievable. It’s heartwarming when South African people are talking about the team getting too old.”
Erasmus argued that the squad isn’t nearly as old as it is being claimed to be, as a few tweaks to any team influence the average age of the matchday 23. To drive home his argument, the head coach pointed to the team that beat the All Blacks, compared it to this weekend’s side and offered a few changes.
This weekend’s side shows a handful of changes, with Salmaan Moerat replacing the injured Eben Etzebeth whilst Cobus Reinach drops out of the 23 with Grant Williams taking his place on the bench. 39-year-old Deon Fourie is also absent, with Jan-Hendrik Wessels serving as Malcolm Marx’s back-up.
“You know, the team that played five weeks ago against New Zealand, the average age was 32,” he continued.
“The team that plays this weekend is an average of 29. So it’s two or three changes in the team… that’s why I so thoroughly enjoy the South Africans. If you go with Krappies [van den Berg] and Sacha [Feinberg-Mngomezulu] and Ethan [Hooker] and Canan [Moodie] plus Kurt-Lee [Arendse] and Sebastian [de Klerk] and Damian [Willemse], that team is 28 or 27. If you make a few changes with Emmanuel [Tshituka], Cameron [Hanekom], Ruan [Nortje], and Cobus Wiese, that team is 27.
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“I think what has happened is people are not talking about the results as much, but they’re talking about how long this team can do it for, and that’s been the interesting thing.”
Blooding the youth
Erasmus confesses that it hasn’t been easy to bring in the next generation of talent as he needs to be able to justify the changes. He explained that some players who are getting older are still playing well and therefore don’t deserve to be dropped just because of their age. Furthermore, results are important.
“It has been tough to make sure that we keep on winning but also blooding some young guys, but we’ve never put out a young team there,” he added.
“I don’t know if that’s frustrating people, but that’s certainly us slowly evolving and knowing that players are getting older, but as long as they perform… I feel that’s what the older players have done; Jesse [Kriel] just keeps on performing, Damian [de Allende] is continuing to perform, so you can’t not pick them.”
