{"id":588541,"date":"2025-11-23T10:11:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-23T10:11:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/588541\/"},"modified":"2025-11-23T10:11:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-23T10:11:12","slug":"rassie-erasmus-explains-being-short-14-or-15-guys-next-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/588541\/","title":{"rendered":"Rassie Erasmus explains being short \u201814 or 15 guys next week’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rassie Erasmus is planning to round off the Springboks\u2019 November tour with \u201cprobably only 24, 25 guys touring with us to Wales\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Having clocked up wins over Japan, France, Italy and Ireland in London, Paris, Turin and Dublin, the Welsh in Cardiff next Saturday will round off their five-match trip.<\/p>\n

However, with the game taking place outside the World Rugby player release window, the South African head coach will cross the Irish Sea with a much-reduced squad due to club demands.<\/p>\n

The likes of Thomas du Toit<\/a> and Boan Venter, the starting props who led the assault on the buckled Irish scrum in Saturday\u2019s 24-13 win<\/a>, must return to their respective English and Scottish clubs rather than be available for the final Test match of the calendar year.<\/p>\n

Juggling act<\/p>\n

It will be a juggling act, one that Erasmus<\/a> wasn\u2019t fully on top of his brief about when quizzed post-game in Dublin as he forgot the names of some of his players.<\/p>\n

There will also be some players lost to Japanese clubs as their new season starts next week, and the head coach felt obliged to accede to some release requests as the Japanese helped South Africa<\/a> out at the start of the month when the November 1 match took place before the beginning of the three-week player release window.<\/p>\n

Asked how many players would be absent in Wales from the Springboks squad he had with him in Ireland<\/a>, he explained: \u201cQuite a few.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, all the guys that play in the Premiership (and URC), guys like Thomas, guys like Boan, RG (Snyman), guys like Edwill (van der Merwe) play in URC, Kurt-Lee (Arendse concussion) is obviously out.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe haven\u2019t mentioned (Aphelele) Fassie, Fassi is out. Yeah, there is a nine that is not available for this game, who goes back. Who is it?<\/p>\n

Ireland v Springboks: Five takeaways as South Africa show why they are \u2018clear of the rest\u2019 but officials get it \u2018horrifically wrong\u2019 yet again<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Springboks player ratings: Malcolm Marx spearheads \u2018sheer massacre\u2019 as Ireland choked into submission<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cGrant (Williams) is going back to the Sharks; he must play there. We spoke to our URC friends out in South Africa, so we will only train next week with only 25 players in the group.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will assess the injuries tonight [Saturday]. There are quite a couple of guys that must also go back to Japan. Jesse (Kriel) can\u2019t play, and some of the Japanese clubs asked us nicely.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey helped us out with the Japan match and it was outside the window, and this match is also outside the window \u2013 and it is the same with Wales, they have also got a couple of players playing in the Premiership and there is no getting away from Premiership rules, you can\u2019t play in matches outside the window.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we will assess our injuries, but I guess there is about 14 or 15 guys who is here currently won\u2019t be available next week. And obviously other guys like Edwill, they will stay there, Grant will go back, there is another one going back, I can\u2019t quite remember who it is now.<\/p>\n

\u201cManie (Libbok) is going back to Japan. He is only just fresh in Japan and the club asked can he join them as their season starts next week, so we will regroup and see. But yeah, probably only 24, 25 guys touring with us to Wales.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ireland player ratings: Caelan Doris the \u2018soldier in the trenches\u2019 on a \u2018dreadful day\u2019 against the Springboks after James Ryan\u2019s \u2018thuggery\u2019<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Andy Farrell dismisses accusation that Ireland were \u2018shambolic\u2019 and instead insists his players \u2018showed bottle for their country\u2019 in a \u2018chaotic\u2019 situation<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Welsh threat<\/p>\n

That lack of Springbok availability could incentivise the Welsh but even if Steve Tandy\u2019s side were to produce a stunning upset, the result won\u2019t be enough to threaten South Africa\u2019s position at the world\u2019s No.1 side.<\/p>\n

They currently have a huge buffer between themselves and second-place New Zealand, but Erasmus tried to suggest a loss in Cardiff could cost the Springboks two places on the rankings list at the end of a year where they retained their Rugby Championship title and have won 11 of their 13 Test matches.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur aim this year was to try and end in the top four,\u201d said Erasmus modestly in Dublin. \u201cWe played Ireland, who are fourth in the world currently.<\/p>\n

Latest World Rugby rankings: What the Springboks\u2019 victory over Ireland means and how Wales moved up despite All Blacks\u2019 thrashing<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

World Rugby Awards: Malcolm Marx beats fellow Springboks to top gong as All Blacks continue dominance<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cSo some people might have expected us to win because they are four in the world and we are one, but we still know if we lose to Wales next week, we can drop two places \u2013 but being in the top four in world rankings this year was probably the aim for us while rotating.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have used 50 players this year, and next year it can be more experimental as December 7 is the World Cup draw and if you are outside the top six, then you might be in a pool of death. Our first goal was to be in the top four so that pool draw can be okay.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we are realistic, Australia gave us a shock that first (Championship) match. We lost two matches this year, two matches last year, so we are up in certain areas.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut losing Ox (Nche) and Jan-Hendrik (Wessels) and all of those guys, and Frans Malherbe will only be ready next June and we had to bring a few youngsters into the mix, so we are getting better in swapping in and out in different positions but a lot of work still to do if we think we can stay at the top.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Dominant Springboks win with plenty to spare after bruised Ireland left drowning in card farce<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rassie Erasmus is planning to round off the Springboks\u2019 November tour with \u201cprobably only 24, 25 guys touring…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":588542,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[225,90462,12,7405,4151,2196,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-588541","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-home-page","9":"tag-internationals","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-rassie-erasmus","12":"tag-rugby","13":"tag-south-africa","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115598477601225785","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588541","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=588541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/588542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=588541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=588541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=588541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}