{"id":1187585,"date":"2026-09-05T08:46:19","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T08:46:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1187585\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T08:46:19","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T08:46:19","slug":"rassie-erasmus-reveals-hybrid-plans-for-siya-kolisis-springboks-successor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1187585\/","title":{"rendered":"Rassie Erasmus reveals hybrid plans for Siya Kolisi’s Springboks successor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rassie Erasmus has plans for breakthrough Springboks<\/a> forward Paul de Villiers, but he won\u2019t be \u2018throwing away\u2019 captain Siya Kolisi anytime soon.<\/b><\/p>\n

De Villiers burst onto the international scene with a strong cameo off the bench against the Barbarians before making his official Test debut in the Nations Championship opener against England in July.<\/p>\n

The Stormers star was a late addition to the Springboks<\/a>\u2018 starting line-up after captain Kolisi<\/a> sustained a hamstring injury in training, which ruled him out for the remainder of the July Tests against Scotland and Wales, respectively.<\/p>\n

Paul de Villiers\u2019 place in the Springboks team<\/p>\n

In his absence, De Villiers<\/a> started those fixtures and was named man of the match in the victory over Wales in Durban. He retained the number six jumper for the opening Test match of Rugby\u2019s Greatest Rivalry<\/a> series against New Zealand, but Kolisi\u2019s return from injury saw him drop out of the matchday 23 entirely for the second and now third Test match.<\/p>\n

Whilst it\u2019s clear that Springboks captain Kolisi remains the first-choice selection in the number six jumper, Erasmus says that De Villiers is very much on their radar as a player with a bright future ahead of him.<\/p>\n

Many have predicted that part of that future includes him moonlighting as hooker, much like his clubmate Deon Fourie and Bulls forward Marco van Staden. However, the Bok head coach revealed that while he is able to throw the ball into the lineout like a hooker, he doesn\u2019t have the body shape and heft to crack in the front-row.<\/p>\n

However, that does not mean that he can\u2019t be a hybrid option for South Africa, with Erasmus<\/a> suggesting that the athletic back-row could follow Andre Esterhuizen and be an option on the side of the scrum as well as in the centres.<\/p>\n

Last year, the experiment with Esterhuizen began with the powerhouse centre repeatedly named on the bench and featured both in the midfield and at flank for South Africa. This ploy meant that he earned 10 Test caps last year, dwarfing his three from the year prior. The now 32-year-old had also earned just 19 caps before 2025 and is in line to win his 34th on Saturday in the third Greatest Rivalry Test match in Soweto.<\/p>\n

The rookie Nick Mallett believes has \u2018maturity to lead\u2019 Springboks<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Springboks team v All Blacks: Five takeaways as \u2018front-row musical chairs continues\u2019 and key trio set for \u2018momentous occasion\u2019<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Future hybrid role but not at hooker<\/p>\n

After naming his team for that fixture, Erasmus was asked about the potential of De Villiers packing down in the front-row at some stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think Paul is a guy who can play hooker; he can throw into the lineout really well, but he doesn\u2019t have that size,\u201d he replied.<\/p>\n

\u201cMarco [van Staden] is heavy like an ox\u2019s leg or a cement bag, and he is a solid guy who has done a lot of scrum work.<\/p>\n

\u201cPaul could definitely help us out with the lineouts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Springboks v All Blacks: The truth about the Cape Town scrum as Dave Rennie\u2019s \u2018walking around\u2019 charge runs into Ox Nch\u00e9\u2019s hips<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Erasmus added that while De Villiers played well earlier in the international season, he wasn\u2019t going to drop captain Kolisi, who continues to perform in Green and Gold.<\/p>\n

\u201cSiya is 35 and has played about 50 minutes in total; all 50 of those minutes, he has been productive,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt half time, we asked him, \u2018How long can you go?\u2019 And he said, \u2018He doesn\u2019t know if he can go on,\u2019 so we said, \u2018Come, let\u2019s give it a few more minutes and get a lekker big hit in.\u2019 He got that one on Ardie, so we said, \u2018Job done\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cPaul has a bright future. There are a few players with a bright future, but we can\u2019t just throw players away because they are getting older, especially if they are producing like Siya produces every bloody game \u2013 and he is captain.<\/p>\n

Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for world-class coverage you can trust.<\/p>\n

\u201cPaul is on our radar, and he could be more of a hybrid player like Andre Esterhuizen, where he could play a little of 12 and six, rather than him being able to play six and two.\u201d<\/p>\n

De Villiers wouldn\u2019t be the first flanker to move into the backs in international rugby, with England doing similar with Ben Earl and Henry Pollock, the former even doing so for Andy Farrell\u2019s British and Irish Lions last year.<\/p>\n

Pieter-Steph du Toit finished the 2023 Rugby World Cup Final defending on the wing for the Boks, while Kwagga Smith has repeatedly been mentioned as an option in the backs.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0<\/b>Springboks team: Winners and losers including the victim of Rassie Erasmus\u2019 \u2018brutal decision\u2019 while Cape Town stars are rewarded<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rassie Erasmus has plans for breakthrough Springboks forward Paul de Villiers, but he won\u2019t be \u2018throwing away\u2019 captain…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1187586,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4102],"tags":[225,90462,12,4151,79,16,15],"class_list":["post-1187585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-home-page","tag-internationals","tag-news","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117217564238168911","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1187585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1187585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1187585\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1187586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1187585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1187585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1187585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}