South Africa’s Springboks’ Coach On Building A Winning Pipeline

Up head: a one-off Test against Argentina in Buenos Aires on August 8, where Rassie Erasmus is hoping to welcome back captain Siya Kolisi and Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, who have both missed the international season to date through injury.

South Africa coach Rassie Erasmus has long spoken of growing the player pool for the Springboks, and that was certainly the case in the three Nations Championship fixtures in July.

Erasmus used a total of 43 different players across the home wins over England, Scotland and Wales, which see the side sitting pretty at the top of the Southern Hemisphere table, albeit only ahead of New Zealand on points difference.

Just six players featured in all three games–lock/flanker Pieter-Steph du Toit, flankers Paul de Villiers and Ben-Jason Dixon, hooker/prop Jan-Hendrik Wessels, center Jesse Kriel and utility back Damian Willemse.

For the rest, there was plenty of chopping and changing, but it was all by design for master strategist Erasmus.

The fact that he was missing several key players through injury, while resting others, makes the convincing wins all the more impressive.

They now head into a one-off Test against Argentina in Buenos Aires on August 8, where Erasmus is hoping to welcome back captain Siya Kolisi and Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, who have both missed the international season to date through injury.

That is a final tune-up for the four-Test series against New Zealand.

“The guys will now have a week off and then 26 guys will go to Argentina and 15 or 16 guys will stay behind, with one or two rehabbing,” Erasmus said.

“They will start training for New Zealand and a few coaches will stay behind with them. Argentina is going to be tough and they have had our number a few times.”

Erasmus, never one to be fully satisfied, and neither should he be, as it is what drives the team forward, admits there is still plenty of room for improvement despite the Springboks extending their winning run to 11 matches, even as they rotate players.

“You have to take it department by department: How were the scrums? How were the defensive scrums? How were the mauls? Then try to get better,” Erasmus said. “I think we have definitely got a little bit better with every game, but obviously, because we have been rotating, it does take cohesion away.

“The main thing is that we have given our players opportunities. Some are young and some are old, but we’ve given everyone a good opportunity.”

One of those to get an expected chance was 20-year-old flyhalf Vusi Moyo, who played 48 minutes against Wales in Durban. Erasmus admits there were some nerves that made it difficult for the youngster to settle.

“I think he performed nervously, for me. I don’t know if other people would see it like that,” Erasmus said. “But he definitely played well.

“He’s a really accurate kicker, he kicks off really well, but then you get into a Test match like this with a lot of people, even at your own time, the ball is wet, and suddenly you don’t kick it into the corners. 

You don’t kick it on the spot with the kick-offs.

“Then you’re tired because the pressure gets to you. You could see in the second half that his tyres were getting pap (flat), and that is why we made the change (with Manie Libbok coming on).”