Springboks legend pinpoints ‘main benefit’ from Rassie Erasmus’ selections: ‘You don’t forget that’
Springboks head coach Rassie Erasmus and an inset of legendary flanker Schalk Burger
Schalk Burger has reacted to Rassie Erasmus’ latest Springboks alignment camp selections and pinpoints why it’s important that youngsters get exposure to the environment.
10 uncapped players attended the camp in Cape Town this week, including Lions back-rower Sibabalwe Mahashe and Sharks teenage sensation Zekhethelo Siyaya, who received their first-ever invites.
In the SA Rugby statement announcing the invitees, it was clarified that this 40-man squad is a “purpose and goal-driven” camp with Erasmus adding that it was to expose these players to the team’s structures and systems with an eye on the next two seasons, and beyond.
Youngsters will discover the ‘minimum requirement’ for a Springbok
Former flanker Burger believes that this is a fantastic move from Erasmus, as it shows that the coaches and selectors are keeping an eye on a large pool of players.
“I think the main added benefit is that all of a sudden, you know you’re under the microscope every single game, it all gets statted, and there are the battle stats that they’ve got to try and get to,” he said on the Boks Unpacked Podcast with fellow former Springboks Jean de Villiers and Hanyani Shimange.
Burger further explained that players like Mahashe and Siyaya will not only learn where the bar is set to be a Springbok but will experience the step up in training demands from their clubs to international.
“Whether it’s Pieter-Steph [du Toit] or Kwagga Smith or whoever. If you’re an openside flanker, that you’ve got to see as your target, that’s your minimum requirement,” he continued.
“But on top of that, whenever we joined [the Bok camp], you come from the Stormers, and you get used to a certain quality of training, and you go to the Boks, where you have the best players in South Africa, and whatever is your perceived high intensity quality of training, it amps up by another 50% when the Boks get together.
“For a young player to be exposed to that work ethic and that accuracy over 60 minutes of training, you don’t forget that.
“So, you start striving for greater goals and more accuracy and training with more intensity, and it can only be a benefit to all those players.”
Predicting who will make their debut
Erasmus has repeatedly stated that being invited to an alignment camp does not guarantee a Test cap but instead better prepares them to make the step up when the chance does arise, and he reiterated that point again, saying: “This week will give us the chance to align those who are fit and firing now with the way we want to operate, so that when an opportunity arises either this year or further down the line, they are ready to step up and deliver at international level.”
However, De Villiers predicts that Mahashe will make his Test debut this year, while Burger thinks that Siyaya will get a chance after impressing in his first four appearances for the Sharks. The trio agreed that if the 18-year-old were to get an opportunity at full-back this year, they wouldn’t be worried when seeing his name on the teamsheet.
