The Springboks have something you don't have

Before the final whistle sounds in Cardiff, the Springboks will have fielded 52 players across the calendar year. Jean Kleyn, who will start, and Cameron Hanekom, who will win his first Test cap off the bench, have been named in the squad for the match against Wales, underlining the coaching masterstroke pulled off by Rassie Erasmus.

Ordinarily such heavy rotation is a sign that things aren’t going to plan. In 2022 Italy used a whopping 58 players in 11 Tests as Kieran Crowley, who’d only got the job a year earlier, desperately sought to inject some experience into a young squad before the World Cup. It didn’t always work. They got spanked in Paris (37-10), at home to England (33-0) and in Dublin (57-6) at the start of the Six Nations before a famous win in Cardiff. And though they beat Australia later in the year, a loss to Georgia showed that they were a work in progress.

The Wallabies were in a similar state of flux in 2022. Dave Rennie used 51 players as he chopped and changed a squad that lost a home series to England, finished second last in the Rugby Championship and failed to win enough games on the autumn tour to prevent their coach from getting the sack.

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In 2020 Wayne Pivac used 50 Welsh players. And though he’d win the Six Nations a year later, the 12 months off experimentation in a season disrupted by the pandemic yielded just one win from six Tests.

Before Erasmus’ Springboks, one side has used a comparable number of players and achieved success. No prizes for guessing that it’s the New Zealand All Blacks. In 2022, across 13 Tests, Ian Foster fielded 51 players. Though he lost a home series to Ireland, he claimed his nation’s 19th Rugby Championship crown and went unbeaten on their northern hemisphere tour.

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But the All Blacks were not the best team in the world in 2022 and Ian Foster was not universally loved back home. The Springboks are unquestionably the top outfit on the planet right now. Erasmus is an anointed saint in South Africa. The man has maintained his hero status while winning games and rotating his team. He’s achieved the rugby equivalent of juggling three chainsaws while balancing on a unicycle.

How has he pulled this off? It starts with buy-in, and on that front Erasmus is unrivalled. Every member of the group – from the 130-Test veteran Eben Etzebeth to the four players who earned their one and only cap against Portugal in July – accepts that the team and the country it represents is more important than any individual and his ego. Last week Matthieu Jalibert refused to occupy the French bench against the All Blacks, seemingly stating that unless he starts he will not play.

It is unthinkable that a Springbok would behave in this manner. Malcolm Marx is the best hooker. He’s probably South Africa’s best hooker of all time. Despite this, Marx has started just 24 of the 60 Tests he has played since 2018. In most games he spends more time on the bench than he does on the field and yet he completely accepts his role within the group and recognises the impact his cameos have on tight games.

Erasmus is also uniquely blessed with a near-bottomless talent pool. Exact figures are hard to come by but by some estimates, there are more than 1,000 professional South African rugby players overseas and Erasmus can call on any of them.

Some countries have made life difficult for themselves with outdated and illogical selection policies that restrict their national coaches from selecting players who ply their trade abroad. While this might make sense in France, where Fabien Galthie can select from 14 top-flight teams that are themselves under pressure to avoid relegation, Steve Borthwick at England and Scott Robertson at New Zealand could really do with a loosening of the rules.

Owen Farrell’s experience would have been invaluable to England as they attempted to get on the right side of a string of closely contested Tests. Richie Mo’Unga’s class would have eased some of the pressure from Damian McKenzie and given the All Blacks options in the creative areas of the park. But because these two world-class athletes earn a living beyond the ring-fenced and limited leagues of the Premiership and Super Rugby respectively, they are effectively personae non gratae. Erasmus must be shaking his head and wondering why his rivals have chosen to shoot themselves in the foot.

Then there’s the situation with Ireland. Andy Farrell has selected just 38 played this year and handed debuts to four (Hanekom will be the 13th South African to win his first cap this year). There’s been plenty of talk around Ireland’s ageing group, and problems at fly-half and prop have materialised. But perhaps Farrell deserves a bit of slack. Are there enough players kicking down the door and demanding a place in the team? With only four professional sides, and with most of the talent skewed towards Leinster, the famous pipeline is now clogged.

In South Africa, the Varsity Cup, the SA Cup, the Currie Cup and the national sevens side (which helped develop Cheslin Kolbe and Kwagga Smith) all serve as feeders for the four United Rugby Championship (URC) sides. Players who cut their teeth in these highly competitive competitions gain experience playing in large stadiums (though admittedly, they’re almost never full) and on live TV. When they do get the opportunity to make the step up to the URC they are battle-hardened.

All this means that Erasmus can select players in good faith, knowing that they are ready for international rugby and won’t be a liability alongside proven winners. Thomas du Toit and Wilco Louw can prop up the front row and the scrum doesn’t lose any torque. Ezebeth can start off the bench and the tight five looks just as formidable without him. Brothers Jaden and Jordan Hendrikse can combine in the half-backs and no one can argue that this is purely for sentimental reasons.

This is not a team in flux or transition. This is not a group that has to compromise on quality when it experiments. It is a team that has a deeper well than any in history, including the All Blacks of McCaw, Carter and Nonu. They’ll end the year with another comfortable win and close out the campaign on top of the world. It’s hard to see how anyone will topple them in the near future.