Rassie Erasmus reveals plans for Springboks youth and wants to ‘rectify’ Ireland record

Head coach Rassie Erasmus has revealed that the Springboks won’t be taking the Test series against Ireland lightly as he aims to “rectify” the recent record.

South Africa and Ireland have clashed on 28 occasions throughout their history, with the Springboks emerging victorious 18 times with one draw between the two sides.

However, Ireland have won each of the last three meetings between the two nations, with the Springboks‘ last victory coming back in 2016 in Port Elizabeth.

Later that year, Ireland sealed a 38-3 win in Dublin when Joe Schmidt was still head coach, with Andy Farrell overseeing a 19-16 win over the Boks in Dublin in 2022 and a 13-8 victory in the World Cup pool stages last year.

Going up against Ireland

Erasmus‘ first Test match on home soil in his second tenure as head coach is up against Farrell’s charges, and he hopes to end the losing run against the Irish.

With many of the double World Cup-winning squad members now 30 years and older, Erasmus is also set to oversee a changing of the guard, which he has been planning since returning to the SA Rugby fold in 2018.

However, he adds that the changes will be gradual and that many of the experienced players who are still good enough will turn out against Ireland.

“In 2018, we did a roadmap on the players and we said: ‘Where will this guy be in 2019?’ Where will he be in 2023? Where will he be in 2027?'” Erasmus explained at the first Springboks press conference of the year.

“We know exactly which players we think can last another year, and we’ve given them specific tasks to help the youngsters before they leave here and maybe reach their 100th Test match or milestone.

“They are still good enough and we’re certainly not going to [experiment] against Ireland, who are number two in the world and haven’t beaten since 2016.

“The last score we got against them or the first score when I started out as coach was the 39-3, something like that, so we just want to rectify that.”

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Changing of the guard

The entire starting forward pack against New Zealand in the Rugby World Cup final last year were over the age of 30, with only Duane Vermeulen hanging up his boots since the tournament’s conclusion.

Of the starting backline players, only Kurt-Lee Arendse (27) and Damian Willemse (25) have yet to celebrate their 30th birthday, with three replacements in that bracket too.

Erasmus realises that many of the stars of the past two World Cups will not be on the plane to Australia come 2027, and while there will be a few players that will still be playing deep into their 30s – like Johnny Sexton did for Ireland – he will need to have some tough conversations with players.

“We’ll probably use some of those old ox [against Ireland]… and then we’ve gradually got a system where we think, ‘Okay, this papa is gonna say goodbye now and do family stuff, and this guy is probably going to do x, y, and z,” he added.

“It is a challenge but the challenge is more so to tell the players they must actually stop now. I think that’s a really tough one because there are some guys who are in their 30s that do see themselves winning another World Cup.

“Johnny Sexton was 39 or 38, but I don’t foresee our age going much over an average of 29 or 30.”

Prior to their two Test matches against Ireland in July, South Africa return to Twickenham, where they will clash in a neutral venue match against Wales.

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