LONG READ Age is no barrier, world-leading Thomas du Toit and the Bok props are kings

One week a rooster, the next a feather duster. On 29^th June 2013 at the Docklands stadium in Melbourne, ACT prop Ben Alexander had trotted out proudly ahead of his team-mates on the occasion of his 50^th cap, and Australia duly won the second Test against the touring British and Irish Lions by a single point. It was one of the highlight moments for the Brumbies man in an international career spanning 10 years between 2008 and 2018.

A few days later, I penned an article for Green and Gold Rugby previewing the decisive third Test. A bright world full of gain for the Wallaby tight-head would turn into a claustrophobic room of pain within the space of seven days. As I wrote at the time, “If Alexander believes running out ahead of the Wallaby team for his 50^th cap was a great occasion, his 51^st is likely to prove even more memorable, for quite different reasons”.

Where Alexander had everything his own his way in Melbourne, juicing three penalties and one heel against the head out of his immediate opponent Mako Vunipola, in Sydney he found himself sitting on the sidelines after only 25 minutes of combat versus Alex Corbisiero.

At the time, Frenchman Romain Poite was the most ruthless referee of the set scrum in the world. Within half an hour, Alexander had committed his third scrum offence and was promptly sent to the bin, and the Lions’ early scrum dominance had decided the fate of the game and the series. For anyone who did not believe the scrummage really mattered in rugby’s brave new world of professionalism, it came as a sobering history lesson.

It is also why South African props are currently the most long-lived and highly-valued assets on planet rugby. If they roamed the bush plains of the Kruger National Park, they too would be a pride of lions; on the rugby fields they prowl, they are rugby royalty. Age only brings more respect as bench splits and alignment camps extend careers into the mid to late-thirties.

All of the five Springbok props likely to feature in Rassie Erasmus’ squad for the 2027 World Cup – Thomas du Toit, Ox Nche, Wilco Louw, Gerhard Steenekamp and Frans Malherbe – will be in their thirties when the tournament commences. It will not matter. They will still be the best of the best when it counts.

Veteran players who might already have been thrown on the scrapheap by other nations remain a critical part of the Springbok Svengali’s plan to make South Africa the team to beat at World Cups, and sustain excellence in a 12-month season which includes the URC domestically [September to June], and the Nations Championship [July and November] and a 10-match ‘greatest rivalry’ tour [August and September] internationally.

That’s a lot of footy, and it is why Erasmus selects from wider squads interlaced with the continuous thread of ‘alignment camps’.

“You can’t plan a guy’s career just around the World Cup, because if he’s still good enough and he’s still number one, two or three in that position but he might retire in 2026 it will be very unfair not to pick him anymore just because he ends [in the same year],” he said.

“The purpose of the alignment camps is to get everyone on the same page about what the year looks like, to set our goals, and delve into what we are expecting from the players, while also reminding them of a few things we do on and off the field.

“It will take a squad effort to perform this season because it won’t be a group of 23 or 25 players that will be doing it for us this year.

“The so-called older players understand that in order to prolong their careers they’ll have to transfer knowledge to the younger guys, and at the same time, the younger guys know the door is open to work their way into the matchday 23.”

The South African approach to succession planning means extending the careers of players of proven quality to the outer limit, and transferring their precious IP by drip-feed to the younger up-and-comers in the alignment camps.

That is why Erasmus supremo has persuaded 35-year-old tight-head rock Malherbe not to retire ahead of the World Cup, but attend an alignment camp instead.

The key prop in that likely pool of five is Du Toit, who can play both sides of the scrum with equal facility. As his club coach at Bath Johann van Graan observed pithily, “Where else in the world can you find a loose-head and a tight-head combined into one?” In a previous lifetime Du Toit skippered the Sharks, and will return to Durban at the end of the current Prem season. He has also captained South Africa A, and possesses ample leadership qualities to bring the youngsters with him on alignment days.

He is already entrusted with the same role at the Rec, coaching the younger number threes like Welshman Archie Griffin and England Under-20s standout Vilikesa Sela through to the top level. However oft it was told, the story of Du Toit was probably not fully believed until that fateful game in Dublin last November, when the whole of the northern hemisphere got to read it with eyes wide open.

The Springboks had pummelled an Irish scrum containing three 2025 Lions props and two Lions hookers into a bloody pulp by the end of the game, and the left side of the Irish front row has taken a long, long time to recover from that brutalisation. Both loose-heads, Andrew Porter and Paddy McCarthy, were yellow-carded as they conceded eight penalties between them, and the punishment was meted out right from the very start of the game.

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— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) November 23, 2025

If there was one solitary reason Bath emerged unscathed from a difficult tie against Saracens in the last 16 of the Investec Champions Cup on Saturday, look no further than the man they call ‘the Tank’ to find it.

Van Graan had picked Griffin to start, in direct opposition his fellow countryman Rhys Carré. The pair had reportedly been swapping Pokemon cards the previous evening, but the good pals act came to a brusque halt at the Rec. The first hint of trouble ahead came at Bath’s second feed in the eighth minute.

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— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) April 5, 2026

Carré is 6ft 3ins and tips the scales at 140kg, so if you allow him to control the engagement and the height of the set-piece, you will very soon find yourself seeing stars through the top of the scrum. Griffin soaks up the pressure at ‘set’ and loses control of his right shoulder in the process. A repetition of exactly the same formula produced a steady stream of four penalties for the Saracens in the remainder of the half.

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— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) April 5, 2026

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— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) April 5, 2026

The second clip occurred under penalty advantage and would probably have resulted in a try for Saracens if wing Tobias Elliott had chosen to catch the ball in stride after a deft kick through by Elliot Daly, rather than hack it on. Georgian referee Nika Amashukeli generously waited for one more penalty than Monsieur Poite would have done before issuing a general warning to the Bath front row, and to Griffin in particular.

Although Amashukeli was sidelined by an HIA and replaced by Ben Connor for the second period, the Welshman lost no time in activating the prior warning in the 46^th minute, with Beno Obano sent to the bin for another scrum infringement. But the tide at scrum time was already being reversed by ‘the Tank’ at the beginning of the second period.

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— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) April 5, 2026

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— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) April 5, 2026

Unlike Griffin, Du Toit starts low at ‘set’, denying Carré any foothold at the hit and using his height and width against him as the set-piece unfolds. The Welshman’s backbone visibly bends, and his backside pops up as the Springbok strongman gets to work, and Bath are able to extract the ultimate advantage from scrum penalty in the second instance. A deficit of minus three points was transformed to a surplus of 12 by the arrival of the old Paarl Boys alumnus.

The burgeoning success of the South African front row fraternity is far more than a story of size and strength. It is about valuing the products of experience long after others are prepared to dismiss them as irrelevant, and connecting it with new generations and the passing of the torch via solid character and in-depth knowledge. That is why Erasmus will not be worried by the age of his props next year.

Chief among them will be Du Toit. As Van Graan commented after the Saracens match: “If you look at the two years and nine months that he’s been at Bath, in my view he has become one of the best players in the whole world of rugby, and he showed it again. He was absolutely phenomenal in the scrum, in defence and attack [off the bench]. That’s why you build a squad.” The Tank did not establish himself as a regular starter for South Africa until after the 2023 World Cup. Good things take time; better things, a little longer.