Ex-Boks coach insists South Africa are thin in one key area

Former Springboks assistant coach Gary Gold has heralded the extraordinary depth of talent built up by Rassie Erasmus since they won the last Rugby World Cup.

Writing in an article on his website, Gold is full of admiration for how Erasmus has blooded players over time to the point now where they are at least five-deep in every position bar one.

While Gold believes there are nine locks who could do an equally good job, for example, his only concern is at fly-half, where there is a three-way fight for the No.10 jersey between Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, double World Cup winner Handre Pollard and Manie Libbok.

“The thing South Africa have done over the last two and a half years that does not get talked about enough is build depth. Not the depth every coach claims to have, where you can lose one player per position and survive. Real depth. The kind where you look at the locks available to the Springboks right now and count nine men you would be comfortable putting into a Test match, and you look at the props and find much the same,” he wrote.

“I cannot remember a team in the last ten or fifteen years who could say that. The All Blacks between 2011 and 2015, who were as good as any side of that era, had very good depth, one or two players down in most positions. Not five.

“And if I am honest about where the Springboks are thin, it is one jersey. Fly- half. I would say there are three players the Bok management would put in the world-class bracket at ten, and one of them, Pollard, is only just back from injury. Everywhere else the resources are extraordinary.”

Erasmus has rolled the dice again this weekend, making 13 changes to his starting XV for the standalone Test against Australia in Perth. And Gold says it is an opportunity for the players entrusted with the responsibility of replacing the likes of Siya Kolisi, Malcolm Marx and Pieter-Steph du Toit to add their names to the selection mix going forward.

Gold added: “This is not a coach resting his best players and hoping to get away with it. It is a coach who knows he has players who have been in and around the squad for two seasons, who have trained against the best team in the world every week, and who now need to be tested against a real opponent, away from home, with the responsibility on them rather than on Kolisi and du Toit and Marx.

“If they rise to it, and I think a good number of them will, the Springbok options a year out from the World Cup become deeper and richer still. If they do not, Rassie has learned something he needed to know in September 2026 rather than in September 2027. Either way the information is worth more than the result, and I suspect he knows that better than anyone.”

Head-to-Head

Last 5 Meetings

Wins

1

Draws

0

Wins

4

Average Points scored

18

32

First try wins

40%

Home team wins

40%

Gold has recent first-hand experience of facing Australia, as defence coach of Japan, who the Wallabies met in back-to-back Tests in August, and doesn’t expect too many surprises from Les Kiss’ side.

“I’ve watched this Wallaby side more closely than most. Les Kiss’s first two Tests were against Japan,” he said.

“Here is what they do, in one line: they win a penalty in the middle of the field, kick it to the corner, and score. Twenty-seven lineouts inside the opposition 22 this year. Twenty-four ended in a try or a penalty. They have kicked one goal in seven Tests. They don’t want three points. They want to go to the corner.

“Whoever gets the right side of the referee at the breakdown kicks to the corner all afternoon. Whoever gets it wrong defends their own line. And if Australia are in the game at 65 minutes, do they finally take the three points against the best maul defence in the world, or do they trust the corner one more time?

“That single decision might be the whole game.”