Just how many current Springboks make for a winning South African challenge in the United Rugby Championship? It isn’t quite the million dollar question but it is one every South African regional coach must be asking himself because of the lack of guarantees when it comes to availability of these players in the first half of the competition.
The Sharks are building a very powerful team with a Springbok feel about it, but they risk being behind the black ball for much of next season’s URC because of restrictions when it comes to those Boks on the end-of-year tour and those earmarked for the 2023 World Cup.
Leinster, in the north, and the Crusaders, in the south, have proven to be masters of building squad depth outside their regular Test players, and they have consistently been able to pick match-day squads that aren’t exclusively reliant on their Test players for success.
Too many current Springboks make for a bloated salary budget, and the key is in balancing a squad selection that includes a couple of marquee players, experienced players ... and an emerging youthful component.
It is the second-tier players in the squad that determine so much of a team’s ability to make it to the play-offs and compete for silverware and in recent years this has been particularly true for Leinster, who have perfected the selection art of mixing and matching in the URC (formerly Pro Rugby) and Europe’s elite knockout competition, the Champions Cup.
The Sharks, in a South African context, have battled in the Currie Cup, which emphasises that the depth isn’t what it should be when those players have to step up to replace the many current Springboks in the squad.
The Bulls have been the biggest beneficiaries, in the Currie Cup and the URC, of not having current Springboks in their squad, and the Stormers have profited from having to rebuild their squad after the departure of senior Boks Eben Etzebeth, Bongi Mbonambi, Pieter-Stef du Toit, Siya Kolisi and Damian de Allende.
Stormers coach John Dobson was forced to look to local emerging talent within the region and, after a predictable early struggle, they are unbeaten in their past eight URC matches, and have lost the fewest matches of all teams in the competition. They are on the cusp of a top four finish, and possibly even a top two finish, which would guarantee them a home quarterfinal and potentially a home semifinal.
Among the most revealing statistics is that just six of the Springboks match 23 that played against England at Twickenham last November currently play for South African teams in the URC, and still SA has three teams in the top eight of a competition that has the potential to be one of the strongest in Europe, especially given the presence of the four Irish provinces.
Too many current Springboks make for a bloated salary budget, and the key is in balancing a squad selection that includes a couple of marquee players, experienced players who will no longer play Test rugby and an emerging youthful component with the ability to become internationals.
The Stormers and Bulls are examples of two franchises this season who have got it right, even if by default, and they have done it very differently. The Bulls have relied on bringing in a lot of experience, with former Test players Morne Steyn and Marcel Coetzee particularly prominent in the value add, while the Stormers have gone with youth and with investment from within SA.
SA’s national director of rugby Rassie Erasmus recently said it was an all-win situation at a national level with so many of SA’s front-line players contracted overseas. Erasmus made the point that all these players remain available for the Springboks, but that the overseas clubs pay the bulk of the player’s annual salary, and it allows for the free flow of emerging talent to play domestically.
It is hard to argue with Erasmus, but what would be an all-win situation is if this emerging South African talent from the URC actually get a look in at national level. Otherwise they too will up and leave for overseas clubs.
What isn’t an all-win situation is loading a South African team with current Springboks. While it makes for good PR, it can’t translate into good performances when those players hardly play because of international commitments.
Mark Keohane is the founder of keo.co.za, a multiple award-winning sports writer and the digital content director at Highbury Media., Twitter @mark_keohane.
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