TALKING POINT: Remembering what ‘Gazza’ can do at 10 should quell Bok nerves

It would be understandable if Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus is willing his players to lose the knockout games they will be playing in over the coming weekend so that the stream of injuries impacting on his plans for the forthcoming season can be stopped.

The latest key Bok under an injury cloud as the international season, which starts with the match against the Barbarians in Gqeberha on 20 June, hurries towards us, is the reigning World Rugby Player of the Year, Malcolm Marx. The influential hooker left the field during his Kubota Spears team’s 26-24 win over Saitama Wild Knights in their Japan Rugby League One semifinal on Sunday.

Marx was feeling a bicep injury, and while there has been no confirmation of how bad it is, bicep injuries can be problematic and require considerable time away from the field. Having Marx doubtful for the start of the test match season, which starts with the 4 July Nations Championship showdown with England at Ellis Park, will add to Erasmus’ headache as, if he is ruled out, he will join a host of players who were part of last year’s successes on the sidelines.

However, assuming what Rassie might be thinking is always presumptuous, and it may just be that he is taking the glass-half-full approach. The slew of injuries could well present a needed opportunity to build the game capacity of players who may not always have been front-line last year, but might be needed in next year’s Rugby World Cup.

LOSS OF SACHA IS A SETBACK, BUT POSITIVE CAN COME FROM IT

Seeing that the injury to Marx was preceded the previous day by the sight of Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu leaving the DHL Stadium on crutches, it raises the subject of the all-important flyhalf position.

It looks unlikely we will see Feinberg-Mngomezulu play for the Boks until after the Greatest Rivalry Series against the All Blacks, and losing arguably the world’s best flyhalf is a big setback for Erasmus and the Boks. Apart from anything else, Sacha also needs game time to help his growth, as brilliant as he is, as he is still developing as an international player.

But where I’d see the glass-half-full angle for Erasmus is how Feinberg-Mngomezulu’s injury could set up a repeat of the corresponding year of the last World Cup cycle in helping develop the capacity of the other players in the flyhalf pool. The 2022 international season was a testing one for Erasmus when it came to flyhalf because his first choice, Handre Pollard, was injured for large parts of it.

Elton Jantjies had been Pollard’s back-up before that, but that was the season that several issues thrust the former Lions pivot into the background and then out of the squad, leaving Erasmus in a pickle when it came to who would wear the No 10. By the end of the year, however, he was far more comfortable as it delivered him not one but two flyhalf options as alternatives to Pollard.

At the end of the November tour, after an outstanding performance as a replacement in the second half of the 63-21 win over Italy in Genoa, and based also on what he saw from him in training, Erasmus would have been convinced he did have a going alternative to Pollard.

Not only was Manie Libbok of international standard, he also brought a different dynamic to the attack at a time that the Boks first started to make the shift to a more attacking game that was later accelerated by the arrival of former All Black flyhalf Tony Brown as the attack coach.

Libbok got further opportunities the following year, and he was very instrumental in what was then a record 35-7 win over the All Blacks at Twickenham in a World Cup warmup match. So when Pollard was out injured and not named in the World Cup squad, it wasn’t quite the disaster it might have been considered 12 months before that, before Libbok emerged on the international stage.

SA WOULD HAVE LOST 2023 QUARTERFINAL IF NOT FOR MANIE

As it turned out, Libbok did play a key role in the World Cup, with his X-factor playing a significant role in the nervy win over Scotland in the opening game, and while it was the fully recovered and recalled Pollard who kicked the winning penalty in the quarterfinal against France, the Boks would not have been in the game at halftime were it not for Libbok’s attacking magic.

Libbok has produced several outstanding performances for the Boks since then, and let’s not forget Libbok came on as a replacement for Feinberg-Mngomezulu in the 18th minute, so he was orchestrating the attack for the last 62 minutes of the most recent Bok record performance against the All Blacks, the 43-10 win in Wellington last September.

RASSIE’S ROTATION POLICY HAS DELIVERED WHAT IT WAS DESIGNED FOR

The last time we saw him play, Libbok had sorted out his place-kicking inconsistency, so provided he remains fit, he is a capable replacement for Sacha, and Pollard is still playing and will no doubt get his fair share of games over the coming months too. Erasmus has back-up and if he’s not quite as panicky as the picture painted right at the start of this column, it is because he’s succeeded in creating the depth his rotational selection policy was designed to do.

But the Feinberg-Mngomezulu does reduce the pool of flyhalves to two, and there may well be questions being asked about what happens if there are further injuries in the position. Jordan Hendrikse was used as a No 10 in two games in 2024 and was then considered the next cab off the rank, but has had injuries and form issues since his move to the Sharks from the Lions that have prevented him from kicking on.

So, who would Erasmus turn to were one or both of the still-standing Bok flyhalves injured and he had to add someone else to the mix? The answer lies in something else that happened in 2022. Libbok only played a bit part right at the end of the season after Pollard’s injury, with the man who took up the flyhalf position for all the big games being Libbok’s then Stormers teammate Damian Willemse.

THE ULTIMATE UTILITY PLAYER

The ultimate utility player, Willemse may have had a few initial hiccups, but grew back into the position he played in his school's rugby and early Western Province rugby. So much so that by the end of that season, he was flying in the position and earned the official man-of-the-match award for the clinical performance he turned in in the No 10 jersey against England at Twickenham.

The Boks won 27-13 to hasten the end of Eddie Jones’ reign as England coach, and apart from his tactical master-class and two well-taken drop-goals, he also had the UK media raving about the role he played in setting up Kurt-Lee Arendse for the spectacular try that put the South Africans on the road to victory.

Willemse wasn’t needed there much when Pollard and Libbok were both fit in 2023, but he delivered a telling reminder of his suitability for the position when he drove the Stormers to an emphatic first-ever win over Munster in Cape Town in October 2024. Known as Gazza to his teammates, Willemse kicked a drop goal and apart from his commanding all-round presence in a 34-19 win, he was also on target with his place-kicking as he slotted all four conversion attempts in addition to kicking a penalty.

Mr Utility could easily be Willemse’s other name, and right now, particularly with Aphelele Fassi out injured, he looks the best Bok fullback even though some of us would love to see him wear the No 12 jersey as he did so well in the first part of that aforementioned win in Wellington.

But he’s also a world-class flyhalf and can be used there by both the Boks and the Stormers when required. Having ‘Gazza’ there primed to play 10 if needed should quell the nerves of Bok fans.