LONG READ South Africa's 'universal soldier' typifies the Boks' rise to the summit of world rugby

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.” [Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities].

The best of times and the worst of times: Franco Mostert has seen them both in a 12-year career spanning half the known rugby world – South Africa, England and Japan. As a Springbok, the man nicknamed ‘Sous’ [‘sauce’ for a surname which sounds like ‘mustard’] experienced the harrowing heartache of that cataclysmic 57-0 loss to New Zealand in North Harbour on 16^th September 2017.

As a Lion, he started in three successive Super Rugby final losses to Kiwi opponents between 2016 and 2018. Sous was at the epicentre of that winter of despair for South African rugby, the season of darkness where they had learned to be losers after decades of sunlit success in amateur times.

It needed the coming of Rassie Erasmus as director of rugby to shake off the Super Rugby spell, build a new epoch of belief, and lead the national team towards another spring of hope. To achieve transformation, he had to revolutionise the game on and off the field: establishing the principle of overseas selection policy in 2018, then shifting the axis of South Africa’s game north with the induction of the four South African ex-Super Rugby franchises to the United Rugby Championship in 2021.

By moving further afield, South African rugby paradoxically rediscovered its essence. Erasmus’ first World Cup win in 2019 was based unapologetically on 80-minute scrum power and a ferocious, unyielding rush defence. The 6-2 bench was born and the tight forwards became once more the basis for national success, at the start and the finish of the game alike.

Erasmus added 37-year-old hooker Schalk Brits to the Springbok squad for that tournament. Brits was fully retired from the game and had spent his twilight years at English champions Saracens rather than at home in the Western Cape. But there was method in Rassie’s apparent madness, and it was an integral part of the new age of wisdom.

“If you look at Bongi [Mbonambi] and how he struggled in the Currie Cup final and then, four weeks later, he comes off the bench against France, hits five lineouts and scores the winning try.

“Schalk Brits had a massive role in that.

“Bongi is not a guy who has 50 Test caps. Before a World Cup, to get a guy like him working with a guy like Schalk Brits is great.

“Schalk is not a guy just looking for a position, he is there to help [Bongi] with his throwing, his scrumming and [play in] European conditions.”

Brits himself takes up the story of Erasmus’ insistence of a return to when Springbok scrums were full of mighty men and feared worldwide.

“When Rassie took over as Springbok coach, [he] challenged us to think differently about the scrum, and he asked us to embrace it as a key part of our overall strategy.

“Rassie made us think of complete dominance, of having the mindset of relishing and getting excited for every single opportunity to scrummage.

“He designed the 6-2 split on the bench as a big part of this, and he asked us to no longer think of ourselves as 1, 2, 3 and 16, 17, 18 but as two integral units of the team… ready and waiting to make a quantitative difference to the team and the scoreboard; no hiding, no passive scrumming, just every single one a moment to dominate our opposing pack.”

We know now how spectacularly well the Springbok experiment has turned out. By cycling backwards, with a deep dive into the past of a great rugby nation, Erasmus has taken it forwards once again, to the point where his philosophies are becoming the envy of its most ancient rivals.

New Zealand head coach Scott Robertson was full of praise of Rassie’s new model army after the All Blacks’ end-of-year tour match in Turin.

“South Africa, the model they run, with all [players] available [it is the ideal]. Some play in the northern hemisphere, some in the southern hemisphere and their own country. All selectable.

“You cannot replace Test experience – that is one thing I’ve learned. They’ve got a got a great balance. They’ve got youth coming through, they’ve got great benches, they finish over top of teams and they’ve got big squads – they can have two really [high] quality XVs. Professional rugby is always evolving, you’ve always got to be a step ahead.”

The success of Rassie’s policy is easy to measure. Take a look at the following table, culled from the 2024 Rugby Championship.

The pattern was reinforced on the Springboks’ end-of year tour, with three matches against Scotland, England and Wales yielding a healthy fourth quarter points differential of +30.

Erasmus selected 51 different players overall in the course of 2024, and one of the prime keys was rotation at the three spots reserved for the big men in jerseys 4, 5 and 7. Rassie picked eight different combinations at those positions in 13 matches, switching the lineout captaincy between four different second-rows in the process. A ninth [Jean Kleyn] undoubtedly would have extended the merry-go-round of personnel even further, only to be sidelined by injury the whole time.

Three different men started at number four [Eben Etzebeth, Salmaan Moerat and Pieter-Steph du Toit], another quartet at number five [Mostert, RG Snyman, Ruan Nortjé and Du Toit] with a trio on the blind-side flank [Du Toit, Elrigh Louw and Ben-Jason Dixon]. One of the safer conclusions to be drawn from such a panoply of talent is South Africa has the best pool of big-and-tall athletes on planet rugby.

If most are super-sized, they are all also very mobile. Repeat world player of the year winner Du Toit can play all three spots more than efficiently at Test level. Even so, he came under stern challenge for the blue-riband six jersey between 2021 and 2023 from Mostert. Dixon shifts between second and back-row for the Stormers. Heck, Etzebeth’s best position in Top 14 rugby was thought to be six by his club Toulon, even though he is the best second row on the planet.

It is South Africa’s corps of wildebeests stampeding from a 6-2 bench which makes most of the difference to Springbok success, and it is an echo of some of the most resplendent and forbidding sides in their illustrious history. Who can forget second row Frik du Preez, galloping down the touchline against the 1962 British and Irish Lions like a prototype Jonah Lomu, beating backs for fun?

Du Preez’s mantle may have been taken on in a new era by the double WPOTY, but it is men such as Mostert who allow the Springboks to tick over without missing a beat. He may be laughingly known as ‘Sous’ in Afrikaans, but among the isiXhosa commentators he is simply the ‘Universal Soldier’ – indestructible, indefatigable and relentless.

The tour match against Wales was no more than a typical ‘Sous’ day at the office: first in cleanout attendances as the first or second man [24], first in tackles with 12; leading a 100% Springbok lineout on 15 throws with six takes of his own. A full-on, 80-minute performance.

Mostert is still the best lineout skipper in South Africa and he is still probably the best partner in the second-row for the monstrous Etzebeth. The pair enjoy an instinctive understanding of how their games can fit together on the field. When Etzebeth chases up for the contestable kick and a potential block-down, Mostert drops back to become the lead cleanout at the next recovery ruck on defence.

A little bit of extra effort, shuttling back and clearing the first defender away quickly creates quick ball and some space outside for kick-pass by Aphelele Fassi.

Like all good partnerships, Mostert and Etzebeth spark off each other’s movement and energy levels. When one moves, the other follows.

At the start of the play both second-rows are well away from the scene of the action, but when Mostert begins to accelerate as the first option on to a short ball after the wide phase, Etzebeth is the man tracking him in support.

In the modern world of rugby, you can have two big men split to either side of the field covering the wide-open prairie on defence. If one is momentarily subtracted from the play, the other can pick up the slack.

‘Whatever you can do, I can do better’ – in the spirit of friendly competition.

Perhaps the greatest tribute to Mostert’s work ethic and innate ability to complement the attributes of others occurred in the 29^th minute, when his brother in arms was forced off the field by injury. On trotted Snyman, and Mostert ensured the Springbok second-row lost none of its momentum with the swap.

At the start Mostert is doing what all top-drawer lineout callers do – bringing the newcomer up to speed and integrating them into the lineout pattern as early as possible. There is complex motion involved before the throw, with two decoys before RG tracks to the tail to take the delivery and Mostert providing the rear support lift. At the end of the sequence, Sous is still following Snyman’s movements faithfully, awaiting the offload he knows he will come.

Anyone who wants to trail the upward graph of South African success over the past six years need look no further than the career of Mostert. Having experienced the abject ‘downs’ of that 57-0 blackout in 2017, and the despair of three consecutive final defeats, Sous trod the prophetic new road flagged by Erasmus wholeheartedly. It has already produced two winning World Cups and spawned a new generation of mobile big men worthy to step into the shoes of Du Preez. Where there was one Universal Soldier, now there is an army.