Exposure at highest level important for Boks’ young players, says Erasmus

Exposing a number of players to international rugby is high on the list of Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus as they prepare to battle it out in two Tests against Ireland and one against Portugal in their Incoming Series next month.

A 39-man squad and 14-man standby group were named by Erasmus earlier this week, and with the Boks starting their long-term goal of building towards the 2027 Rugby World Cup in Australia, an interesting season is in store for the players and coaches.

One of the big surprises in the Bok squad was the selection of Bulls hooker Jan-Hendrik Wessels, who is third in the pecking order at his franchise behind Johan Grobbelaar and Akker van der Merwe.

Wessels a long term project

However, when the squad was announced Wessels was listed down as a front rower, with Erasmus explaining that the Bulls man was a long term project of theirs and that he can play prop and hooker, with his versatility giving him the edge over other players.

“We earmarked Jan-Hendrik Wessels from our Elite Player Development (EPD) system from U-15 level, when he was playing prop then,” explained Erasmus.

“We don’t have control over where the franchises select the players, but with him being able to play hooker and prop it offers us additional options among the forwards.”

Erasmus added that he was very excited about the other new players in the system as well, including the four players who made their debuts against Wales last weekend, and the four uncapped players in the squad.

“Johan Grobbelaar was also one of the stand-out hookers in the URC this season for the Bulls. Sacha (Feinberg-Mngomezulu) has also come through the ranks, and he has been part of our structures before with the SA ‘A’ team and he understands our systems and slotted in with ease.

“We are at a stage where we are trying to expose players to the Springbok environment as much as possible. We had four new capped players against Wales, and we have four debutants in this squad – Phepsi Buthelezi, Jan-Hendrik Wessels, Johan Grobbelaar and Morne van den Berg.

“There could be a few more (debutants) against Portugal if we achieve our goals against Ireland, so we could have a healthy new crop of national players later in this season.”

Defended selections

Erasmus also defended some of the decisions made in selecting the main squad, after a number of top performers this season were only picked as part of the standby group, including powerhouse Bulls prop Wilco Louw.

“Sometimes I can understand that people are upset about Elrigh (Louw), Siya Masuku, Ruben (van Heerden), Wilco. But all of these boys, hopefully, if things go well against Ireland, can play against Portugal,” said Erasmus.

“Wilco is on the standby list. The thing is you’ve got Frans Malherbe and Vincent Koch who have delivered. And then you’ve got Trevor Nyakane who played in a World Cup final.

“We will look at Trevor now. It’s not to say Trevor, or any of these players, can’t fall out of the system. This is a group. So we can always swap somebody if someone has a niggle or is not doing well.

“I do think our depth is healthy. Last year we had one flyhalf at the World Cup. Now there are five guys that we can put there. So yes Wilco is in the mix, he is on our radar.”