Ken Borland

South Africa’s director of rugby Rassie Erasmus said on Friday that the British and Irish Lions tour is special because so much else in the sport has lost its sparkle. The rugby landscape used to be like a tastefully decorated room with a few classic furnishings; now it has become a gaudy space covered in floral chintz and kitsch.

But Erasmus, who made his Test debut in the final match of the 1997 Lions tour, and Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber were clearly like kids on the night before Christmas on Friday when they unveiled their planning for the epic series against the best of Britain and Ireland, with the South African squad confirmed to be announced next Saturday.

“It was really special to play my first Test in the third match of that series, but I was 24 years old and maybe didn’t understand as much how special it was. The players get it now: playing against the Lions is a rare, special thing. There are a lot of things in rugby that are not special anymore because we have so many different matches now.
“So it’s going to be fantastic to have the Lions here, even with no crowds. It only happens every 12 years, it’s like a World Cup final and we nearly missed out on it because it couldn’t be postponed, that would have messed up the whole schedule for overseas countries for the next 10 years. So we would rather have it with no crowds than not have it, we were even willing to play anywhere in the world,” Erasmus said on Friday.
While SA Rugby will continue efforts to have some spectators allowed at the games, Erasmus said they were mindful of ensuring they do the right thing.
“We’re preparing as if there will be no crowds, which will have a massive effect on how it feels at the ground, in terms of home advantage and on the way we communicate. But most of the players have exeprienced this before.
“We are trying really hard to have crowds allowed, but we are also very serious about following the government regulations. Hopefully government can see that we are reliable and supportive and maybe things will change. Even 25% capacity in one of the big stadiums would be a good crowd,” Erasmus said.
The director of rugby confirmed that the entire Springbok squad and management would be vaccinated against Covid-19 before going into a had bubble for the series.

South Africa’s director of rugby Rassie Erasmus on Friday confirmed that next Saturday, June 5, will be the day when the 45 lucky South African rugby players who get to play the British and Irish Lions will be announced.

That enlarged squad will go into a hard bubble together and will see their first action nearly a month later in the first Test against Georgia. The initial group will also comprise the 23 players that will represent SA A against the tourists in Cape Town on July 14. The squad will then be cut to 35-37 players ahead of the first Test against the Lions on July 24.

Both Erasmus and Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber said they were heartened by having plenty of talent to choose from.

“In a way we are lucky to have players all over the world because our players in South Africa have just been playing against each other. But a guy like Jasper Wiese has done really well for Leicester, Rynhardt Elstadt and Cheslin Kolbe won the European Cup with Toulouse and Damian de Allende has been doing really well at Munster. We also have wonderful young talent locally, so we look pretty okay,” Erasmus said.

“Three players from the World Cup squad have retired and Lood de Jager, RG Snyman and Warrick Gelant are touch-and-go with injuries, but the rest are all in the running. The Tests against Georgia fall within the international window and we’ll have other goals against them but we still need to perform and win,” Nienaber added.

“There’s been a joint effort from the referees, coaches and players to get as much ball-in-play time as possible in our local rugby and there has been a massive improvement from the Currie Cup. We were a bit worried but comparing the figures to the Premiership and the Pro14, there’s good parity now and we are really happy.”

Europe seems to be the new proving ground where several South African rugby players go to be transformed from boys to men and the squad lists for the four teams that will contest the Champions Cup and Challenge Cup finals later this month shows Springbok director of rugby Rassie Erasmus has plenty of overseas-based options to consider ahead of the British and Irish Lions tour.

The Champions Cup final at Twickenham on May 22 will be an all-French affair after Toulouse beat Bourdeaux-Begles 21-9 and La Rochelle overcame Leinster 32-23 in the semi-finals at the weekend. The Challenge Cup final will be like a curtain-raiser as it will also be played at Twickenham, on May 21, with Leicester, who beat Ulster 33-24, taking on Montpellier, who were 19-10 victors over Bath.

Amongst the players to have shown their readiness to make the step up are Jasper Wiese, the former Free State player, who has put in numerous storming displays from eighthman for Leicester and the 25-year-old is strongly tipped to be part of the Springbok squad.

There are two other loose forwards who have featured prominently in Europe this season in the shape of Hanro Liebenberg, the former Bulls captain who has also starred for Leicester, and his older brother Wiaan, who has been an effective ball-carrier for La Rochelle.

Nico Janse van Rensburg usually plays lock for Montpellier, but he turned out in the No.6 jersey in their semi-final and is making the most of his chances with the French club.

But it is the players who are already Springboks who will be most keenly watched come finals weekend.

Top of that list will be flyhalf Handre Pollard, who played for the first time in eight months when he came off the bench in the final quarter for Montpellier, and kicked a penalty to ensure victory.

Hooker Bismarck du Plessis, who won a couple of trademark turnovers, and scrumhalf Cobus Reinach also came off the bench for the French club, while Johan Goosen, who is heading for the Bulls at the end of the season, started at outside centre.

Cheslin Kolbe, whose hot-stepping feet dazzled once again in the semi-final, and utility forward Rynhardt Elstadt are the Springboks who have helped Toulouse to the final, while Dillyn Leyds and Raymond Rhule are two almost forgotten Springboks who have been key players in the La Rochelle backline.

South Africans in the European finalists’ squads

Leicester – Jasper Wiese, Cyle Brink, Luan de Bruin, Hanro Liebenberg, Jaco Taute, Kobus van Wyk.

Montpellier – Bismarck du Plessis, Johan Goosen, Henry Immelman, Nico Janse van Rensburg, Handre Pollard, Cobus Reinach, Jan Serfontein.

Toulouse – Cheslin Kolbe, Rynhardt Elstadt.

La Rochelle – Dllyn Leyds, Raymond Rhule, Wiaan Liebenberg.

As the Currie Cup approaches what will hopefully be a thrilling end, there have been some apocalyptic comments about the poor quality of the rugby and how South Africa are allegedly once again miles behind the rest of the world.

People going on about the end of the world being nigh should generally be treated with some scepticism and it was good to hear Director of Rugby Rassie Erasmus provide some much-needed perspective this week. In case anyone has forgotten, our Currie Cup teams are trying to play rugby in the middle of a global pandemic.

Obviously the major focus is to ensure nobody contracts the virus, which means there is regular testing being done on the players. Covid tests are not particularly pleasant, but the effects of this pandemic do not end there.

While Covid has disrupted the lifestyles of so many, it has had a terrible effect on the structured preparation rugby players have become used to in the professional era. According to Erasmus, rugby teams normally spend 280-300 minutes training together in the week before a game. But due to Covid protocols, that figure has now dropped to less than half of that.

That’s because after a match on a Saturday, teams can only do their Covid tests on Tuesday morning, because 48 hours have to pass before testing, otherwise contact tracing would have to be done in terms of who had too much physical contact during the last match. That means teams cannot train on a Monday in case anyone is positive and spreads the virus through the squad.

The results are only returned on the Tuesday night, which means all the scrum, maul and breakdown work has to be done on the Wednesday. A team could train on the Thursday, but that’s two days before the game and coaches and conditioning experts often are a bit wary of doing that so close to a match.

Captain’s runs on a Friday are now also mostly a thing of the past. When one adds in the effect of teams only being selected in the second half of the week, and the absence of coaches and players from week-to-week due to positive tests, it is clear there has been an awfully disruptive effect on the preparations of teams.

Players who do test positive return to action via a detailed nine-day quarantine period and then, once they return a negative test, a return-to-play protocol that measures the effect of the virus on the body through tests on the heart, lungs and other vital organs. It works out to be about 16 days – the equivalent of two matches – away from the game.

And even players or coaches who test negative, but are deemed to be close contacts of someone who has the virus, have to quarantine for 10 days.

These players and coaches, who have all taken pay cuts as well, are at the vanguard of keeping the South African game afloat in far from ideal circumstances. They deserve our thanks and appreciation, not our opprobrium.

With competing in Europe on the horizon, it really is a brave new world in so many ways for our rugby players. They will need our support.

They are taking the hits on and off the field, it’s midsummer when they have never been playing before, and the good thing one can say about the Currie Cup this year is that it’s still as uncompromising as ever.

Saturday’s matches between the Bulls and Lions at Loftus Versfeld, and Western Province and the Sharks at Newlands, might not be thrilling in terms of dazzling running rugby, but for sheer intensity alone they will hopefully be enthralling to watch.