TALKING POINT: Versatility is key to Rassie’s 23-man game

“You don’t understand modern rugby”. That was Eddie Jones to an English rugby writer at a press conference held during the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan.

Jones was coming under fire from sections of the English media for his decision to move one of his players from the starting team to the bench. It was someone who’d played well in the previous game and there were a lot of confounded pundits who couldn’t understand the selection.

I was completely with Jones at the time. What he was saying was that rugby has now become a 23-man game, not 15. When Jones was speaking the Springboks were just starting to make their mark with the ‘Bomb Squad’ impact, that came later in the tournament, but the six years that have elapsed since then should have brought more people around to Jones’ viewpoint.

The most obvious example to use of how much the game has changed is the one from the 2023 World Cup semifinal between the Boks and England. Who were the heroes of that victory from a Bok viewpoint? They were Handre Pollard, who landed the clutch goalkicks, and Ox Nche, who changed the dynamic in the scrums and presented the Boks with a stream of game changing penalties.

The modern rugby debates around selection generally take the all 23 men have a role to play scenario into account. I disagreed with British and Irish Lions coach Andy Farrell’s decision to bench England prop Ellis Genge after the first test, but I understood why he was doing it. And in that particular game in Melbourne, Farrell was vindicated: Genge came on and together with a clutch of other impact substitutes engineered a dramatic comeback.

My argument though would be that had Genge been on from the start it might not have required the Lions to come back like that. They may have controlled the game from the start, like they did the first test when Genge started. In the last test the selection worked against Farrell as after a strong start from the Wallaby scrum the impact of the Lions bench was negated by the nearly 40 minute hold up in play because of a lightning threat.

But the point is that it is old fashioned thinking to regard Genge as having been dropped. Just as when Nche and Steven Kitshoff and before that Kitshoff and Tendai Mtawarira the one that was playing off the bench wasn’t dropped.

Of course it can misfire, with the Genge selection of the most recent game to memory not being a lone example - think Malcolm Marx playing off the bench against the All Blacks in Johannesburg a few years ago after his starring role in the win in Nelspruit the week before.

RASSIE WAITING ON SCHMIDT BEFORE FINALISING

Given all of this, there is a sense that the Bok team and the Bok approach to Saturday’s first Castle Lager Rugby Championship game against Australia hasn’t been finalised yet. Because coach Rassie Erasmus did admit in the team announcement press conference that he would consider changing his bench to accommodate RG Snyman should Joe Schmidt opt for a 6:2 split between forwards and backs on the Wallabies bench.

It is funny isn’t it how the once controversial Erasmus decision to go with that split has become more commonplace. Schmidt would have heard or read Erasmus’ comments, so it will be interesting to see what he comes up with now in his own selection. Of course we will never know if what Erasmus said would influence him, but my hunch is that he would prefer Snyman not to be part of the Bok mix on Saturday.

Snyman is a perfect example of what we’re talking about here. The lock has rarely featured in the Bok starting team, but he has been a key player in two World Cup victories through his bench role. And sometimes it isn’t even your on-field contribution but what your versatility could bring that makes a difference.

Think Frans Steyn in 2019. Erasmus wouldn’t have been in position to go 6:2 had he not had Steyn’s ability to play several positions available to him so that he could get away with playing just one outside back on the bench. And think Damian Willemse now. The Stormers star has played most of his rugby at fullback but, although there’s not a lot between them, Aphelele Fassi has done enough to be first choice for the starting team.

WILLEMSE HAS AN INVALUABLE ROLE TO PLAY

That doesn’t minimise Willemse’s value though. I’ve always thought of inside centre as his best position, and he could be used there on Saturday, with a point of interest being whether Rassie might be tempted if the game allows it to again switch centre Andre Esterhuizen into a forward role later in the piece.

Willemse is also cover in this game for Manie Libbok, who now no longer gives any ground to the other two specialist flyhalves in the squad, Handre Pollard and Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, in the pecking order. The Boks have three world class pivots, plus a player in Willemse who played most of his early rugby in that position and wore the Bok No 10, and very capably too, when Pollard was out injured in 2022.

Willemse is also a good alternative at fullback as he brings the second receiver role performed for so long by Willie le Roux more than Fassi does, they are different types of players, and the Boks may feel they need that later in the game.

If Erasmus opts for a 6:2 split because Schmidt goes that route it would be Willemse who remains as the outside back cover, with Canan Moodie, who covers just wing and outside centre, dropping out. Willemse at a push can even play outside centre if required as he’s lined up in that position, though not wearing the No 13 jersey, at URC level.

Versatility is writ large throughout Erasmus’ squad and his planning. Jan-Hendrik Wessels will cover loosehead prop in this game but he can just as easily slot in at hooker, Kwagga Smith can play all three back row positions, and even scrumhalf Grant Williams has another potential position - wing.

Skipper Siya Kolisi has been shifted from flank to No 8 for the Wallaby game to blunt a specific opposition threat, but that too adds further versatility and gives Erasmus, who openly admits now that there’s no A or B team unless we are approaching a World Cup final or semifinal, another option going forward.

And the more options and different pegs that can fit into unexpected holes the better for Erasmus as he has been the world leader in introducing and then perfecting what should be known as ’23-man rugby’.