The five players who will be released to their franchises to face the All Blacks in the midweek matches of the inaugural Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry (RGR) series are Ntuthuko Mchunu (prop), Evan Roos (No 8), Andre-Hugo Venter (hooker), Embrose Papier (scrumhalf), and Jaco Williams (wing).

Ruben van Heerden (lock), who made his Test debut against Wales last Saturday, is the only player in the squad for the opening leg of the Nations Championship who was omitted from the two groups after making the move from the DHL Stormers to Montpellier, as he finds his feet with his new French club. He will, however, remain on standby for the team.

“We put a lot of thought into how we will manage the entire group of players to give everyone a chance to stake a claim for places in the squad for the RGR series, and we decided that splitting the squad into two groups will be best for the Springbok team and the players to play their way into the squad,” said Erasmus.

“Some players are returning from injury and need some valuable game time, so depending on how they progress from their injuries during next week’s training camp, we will decide who we will take to Argentina, while the other guys in the 43-man squad will remain behind in Johannesburg with a group of coaches and management to begin preparing for the Tests against New Zealand.

So I was listening to the post match after the wales game...

He was talking about having 4 players for every position and naturally, as everyone, I jumped to who would be no1.

But then I realised something and this is the difference between Rassie and other coaches.

He doesn't want his no1 fullback and no 4 fullback to be that far from each other. Cause if the no4 has to play a RWC final, he needs to know he can, that he is trusted.

Rassie wants a team where the no1 and no4 for every position is separated by millimetres, where facing no 1 and no 4 in any position is a problem

Bit of a gripe about the Wales game and a bit about URC.

Playing in Durban in - well this wasn't even Summer - is terrible. I mean I think the only reason we were kakkish is the humidity. If it wasn't present it would have been a blowout.

What is the solution? Is it a training thing? Can it be used as a weapon? More for the Sharks maybe. Is it fine? ie one week in Cardiff, ice pitches and freezing which sounds just as shit then Durban where no one can catch a ball? Like is it just 'part of the experience'?

Could 7pm kickoff could resolve it? I don't live in Durbs so I can fully comment.

I mean that Sharks Toulouse game would have been a murder except the humidity messed them up.

Thoughts?

Why is Hanekom not getting enough minutes in green and gold? Had barely played vs Wales last year and only 40+ min against England...

He is unequivocally the best 8 marginally behind Jasper

4 thoroughly entertaining games in round 1, something tells me it's going to be a great season. In the 1st Division, Valke and SWD Eagles both won their semi-finals convincingly. The final Battle of the Big Birds should be a good watch.

🇿🇦 HISTORY MADE.

🏆 Back-to-back Rugby World Cup Champions
🏆 Back-to-back World Rugby U20 Champions
🏆 Back-to-back HSBC SVNS World Series Champions

From the Springboks to the Junior Boks and the Blitzboks, no nation has ever dominated the global game across all three men’s formats like this.

A golden era of South African rugby.

#Rugby #Springboks #JuniorBoks #Blitzboks #Bokke

Hello my fellow Soringboks fans!

Does anyone here have any detailed insight on how Rassie turned around the Springboks when he took over?

I vividly remember springboks getting belted 57-15 in 2016 at home and 57-0 in 2017 by the all blacks.

If you were to tell then the springboks would win the next 2 world cups I would laughed but here we are

So just looking for any insights on what changes he’s made to turn them around. Also what was your opinion of him when he was first appointed springboks coach?

I genuinely appreciate the contributions Cobus Wiese offers to the Boks. He's an exceptionally powerful ball-carrier; his tackling and lineout work are consistently physical, projecting dominance. However, I must confess that his conditioning appears to be his vulnerability. In the match against the Scots, he managed only 32 minutes. For the Wales fixture, he lasted just 7 minutes into the second half. Currently, there's no genuine stand-in for Elizabettie. If Wiese could extend his playing time to 60 minutes, he would be the quintessential understudy for Eben. I also surmise this is a contributing factor to Rassie's frequent inclusion of Wiese in the starting lineup, with the aim of enhancing his endurance. But what a great couple of games he had.

Prediction of course

1. Venter
2. Marx
3. TdT
4. Wiese
5. Nortje
6. PdV
7. PSDT
8. Wiese
9. Reinach
10. .Libbok
11. .Hooker
12. .DDA
13. .Kriel
14. .

Kolbe
15.Willemse
16.Grobelaar
17.steenkamp
18.Louw
19.BjD
20.Louw
21.MvS
22.Williams
23.Moodie

South Africa is now the only nation to have won the Men's Rugby World Cup, Men's SVNS World Championship, and Junior World Championship back-to-back and hold all 3 of these titles concurrently.

It's pretty clear that Muyo and Ahmed are THE emergent flyhalves in ZA. But who do you think has the higher ceiling?

Muyo feels like a more traditional South African 10 (especially size-wise) and brings structure to the backline. Ahmed, meanwhile, feels like more of a natural baller. Sometimes he reminds of those French 9/10 hybrids.

My gut's leaning towards Ahmed as having the higher ceiling, but it may also be that they enjoy equally good careers and are picked/started based on conditions or the opposition.

What we have now is:

1. A newly capped u20 flyhalf
   
2. A second u20 flyhalf that now knows what’s it’s like to win a final with his boot under serious emotional duress and pressure
   
3. Even more Locks tested out and showing their metal in both the u20s and the seniors
   
4. A clearly fantastic new leader that handled the ref like a boss (a skill not all modern captains have) and clearly is well loved by his team
   
5. A back to back junior World Cup

And if we hadn’t won the final, we would have lost point 5 and we would have uncovered a 10 that can’t handle the pressure. But we still would have had a stronger pipeline of players.

It was gripping to watch and the physicality enormous