OPINION: Why do Bok coaches fear calling their back-up brigade a ‘B side’?

One of the strangest things I have found about the Springbok coaches and management team is their insistence on not calling their back-up players a second string or B team.

Whenever they make sweeping changes to their side for certain games, like they did for this weekend’s clash against Portugal, they always defend their team saying they are all first team players when they are clearly not.

Coach Rassie Erasmus was asked at Tuesday’s team announcement press conference whether he believed this could be considered a B team, with him replying with an emphatic no.

He also said that the team named for Portugal would have given Ireland a tight Test, and compared a number of players with each other, trying to show how tight it is to choose between certain players.

But is Erasmus right? Would this team be able to give the Irish a run for their money? I don’t believe so. Maybe if Ireland played a really bad game, it could be tight, but if they played well I think they would beat this latest Bok team comfortably.

Erasmus does have a point with certain players though, if you compare Lukhanyo Am with Jesse Kriel, or RG Snyman with Franco Mostert, or Cobus Reinach to Faf de Klerk, there is very little between them and you could consider them all first team players.

Not the same

But if you’re comparing Ben-Jason Dixon to Pieter-Steph du Toit, Salmaan Moerat to Eben Etzebeth and Phepsi Buthelezi to Siya Kolisi, it is not the same thing.

That’s not to say that these players don’t have the talent and skill to become as good as the “first-choice men”, they possibly do, but they certainly aren’t there yet.

They are clearly second-string players in the Springbok set-up and there is nothing wrong with that.

In my opinion whether you are considered second or first string in the Bok set-up really doesn’t matter, as just making it into an extended squad is extremely impressive and shows just how good you are and that you can likely get even better.

But to try and hide that certain players are lower on the pecking order is strange, especially considering the players themselves know exactly where they stand (in a pecking order).

It is a huge privilege to be in the Bok squad and many of the players who are considered second string or fringe players could walk into a number of international teams around the world, so there is absolutely zero shame being part of a Bok ‘B’ team.