Springbok head coach Rassie Erasmus has outlined his ambitious rotation strategy ahead of the July Test window, revealing that as many as 50 players are expected to feature across the opening four matches of the international season.
South Africa opened their 2025 campaign with a convincing 54–7 win over the Barbarians in wet conditions at DHL Stadium in Cape Town on Saturday. But while the scoreboard was emphatic, Erasmus made clear that the result would not lead to any premature conclusions about his squad depth.
“We won’t get carried away with this performance,” said Erasmus. “Certainly, some of the newer guys showed us that they can do it at this level, but we’ll layer them in.”
Erasmus confirmed that much of the selection for the next three matches — two against Italy and one against Georgia — has already been mapped out.
“We know who is going to play in Italy one and two, and certainly by the end of the Georgia game, which will be a grind, we’ll have a group of 45, 50 that have had some game time.”
South Africa
Italy
The Boks ran in eight tries against the invitational Barbarians, but Erasmus said his focus is on improving attacking cohesion in better conditions.
“Some of the half gaps and some of the line breaks we made would have stuck if the weather had been drier,” he said. “We can’t wait to play on a dry pitch and improve on our attack.”
Erasmus also confirmed that the coaching staff are actively trialling positional flexibility in the match-day 23 — most notably using Andre Esterhuizen as a back-row forward off the bench.
“You can have two ways of looking at it,” he said. “You can have a forward covering a back position like Kwagga Smith covering wing, and you can have a back covering a forward position, like Andre covering flanker.”
Erasmus revealed that the plan had been in place for months: “We started chatting to him about it five months ago… He is a backline player who can also play forward.”
The Bok coach reserved special praise for returning lock Lood de Jager, who impressed on his return from a potentially career-ending illness.
“The condition that he had was almost career ending, but when we did the fitness testing three weeks ago, he was exceptional,” said Erasmus. “His body might be 32 or 33, but he has had some two or three years ‘rest’… We’re very glad Lood came through it.”
With Italy first up at Loftus Versfeld next Saturday, Erasmus said the time for experimentation is nearing its close: “It was a good hit out but now the test matches start next week.”
