Prepare To Play Less: Rassie Erasmus Made it Clear to Senior Springboks on Game time
Rassie Erasmus has made it clear that senior Springboks will need to make peace with less game time, all for the greater good.
As the Springboks continue preparations for the 2025 season, Rassie Erasmus has begun presenting a multi-faceted plan to the players and management, with the 2027 World Cup serving as the end goal in mind.
The vast majority of players from 2019 should still be available for selection when the next global showpiece rolls around, but several will be nearing their mid-30s, and so Erasmus knows there is a delicate balancing act to correctly manage.
On one hand, Erasmus will want to ensure that the Springboks have plenty of experience and reliability at the next RWC, but he also needs to start blooding some young talent to provide the team with an injection of fresh energy and competition.
In order to manage the game-time of several leading Springboks, though, it is very clear that some first-choice players will not play week in and week out.
“The message we drove through was that 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.
“We won’t always play the same matchday squad, so it’s beneficial for a younger guy and the coaches to get new ideas, and we plan to do the same with the players abroad, whose alignment camps are starting next week.
It’s 12 weeks until we get together again, and from a camp perspective, I think the guys really interacted well.”
