Springboks aim to give 81 players game time in coming season

If things go to plan, the Springboks are hoping to give an incredible 81 players game time over the coming international season, which would eclipse by far their impressive effort last year.

Over the 2024 international season the Boks fielded 51 different players over 13 games, while they won 11 of them and both losses they suffered were only by a single point.

To be able to rotate their squad, and still play at the highest level and achieve remarkable success, is an amazing achievement.

The fact that the Boks are now targeting playing 81 players, over hopefully 16 matches, is almost unbelievable, but with their innovative coach Rassie Erasmus leading the charge, anything is possible.

Unlikely number

The likelihood of 81 players featuring for the Boks is highly unlikely, as it is almost impossible that there will be no injuries, as seen last season when players like Damian Willemse and the recently retired Steven Kitshoff didn’t play a single minute because of setbacks.

However, don’t be surprised if the Boks get close, as they continue their succession planning and build-up towards the 2027 World Cup in Australia.

The Boks currently have 13 games lined up for the coming season, starting with their three match incoming tour against Italy (two games) and Georgia.

They then battle it out in the Rugby Championship with six matches against the All Blacks, Wallabies and Argentina, before closing out their season on their end-of-year-tour to the Northern Hemisphere where they will play France, Italy, Ireland and Wales.

At a Bok press conference earlier this week Erasmus claimed that they were aiming to add two more Tests to their schedule, as well as a game against the Barbarians, to take their tally to 16 matches.

If they are able to add the three additional fixtures, they will have every chance of fielding those 81 players, should they stay injury free.

The incoming tour against Italy and Georgia will be a great opportunity for the Boks to give a lot of fringe players valuable game time, while also handing out a few new caps to some rising talents.

They can use their Japan-based players as an experienced core for the series, while hopefully give some of their stalwarts who play in SA and Europe under heavy workloads some good time off.

Additional fixtures

The two additional fixtures, the game against the Barbarians and various other matches, such as against Wales and Italy later in the year, will also be good chances to test their depth.

With a number of ageing stars in the Bok setup, and questions around whether they will make the next World Cup, it is set to be a very interesting international season to see how the next generation step up.

“We notice people (in the media) are starting to put brackets next to guys’ ages and we do as well. We have succession planning when we know some players are going to give up or can’t keep up anymore,” explained Erasmus.

“But then again, you can’t plan a guy’s career just around the World Cup because if he’s still good enough and (he’s) still number one, two or three in his position, but he might retire in 2026, it’ll be very unfair not to pick him just because he ends (his career) in 2026.

“If you look at our squad and depth chart, there’s a nice spread of older guys and younger guys out of the 84 in total. There are three players who won’t play for us this year and that’s Elrigh (Louw), Kitsie (Kitshoff) who’s done, and Trevor (Nyakane).

“All the other players who are in those groups, if they don’t get another injury, will get game time and be available to be selected.”