Erasmus hails SA Rugby pipeline after Barbarians rout
REACTION: Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus has credited SA Rugby’s player pipeline for the deep talent pool available to the Springboks, while he also highlighted the maturity and composure of the young players in the national set-up.
The Boks secured an 80-31 victory against the Barbarians in their first match of the season, scoring 12 tries in an entertaining display at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium on Saturday.
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Erasmus included five uncapped players in his matchday squad, with Junior Bok captain Riley Norton and Carlu Sadie in the run-on side, while JJ Kotze, Paul de Villiers and Vusi Moyo featured among the replacements.
One-cap Bok Quan Horn was the big surprise at flyhalf, and after the match, Erasmus praised the composure and maturity of the uncapped players, while he also made special mention of Bok returnee Faf de Klerk, who had not played for the national outfit since the Test against Georgia in 2025.
*Also read: Van der Merwe hat-trick, Horn’s audition headline 12-try Barbarians rout
“I think there is so much talent, and that’s credit to SA Rugby and the pipeline,” Erasmus said after the win.
“When there are guys coming to us, they are really calm. So, when we don’t do well, we can ever say it’s SA Rugby’s fault, then it’s a coaching problem,” the Bok boss added on the quality of the youngsters.
“I think one of Quan’s strengths is his defence, the first try came from a guy who ran past him, but that didn’t get him down.
“Overall, he did really well. I think Vusi [Moyo] impressed us as well, he’s really calm. Evan [Roos] was good, I thought Faf was decent when he came on. It is difficult to gauge how good Zimbabwe really are. It is now for us to cut the quad to 45. It was impressive how Riley played for the full 80 minutes. There were a lot of boxes ticked, you can’t moan about defence when you scored 80 points.”
Erasmus had included 21 uncapped players for the Gqeberha double-header in his extended 51-man squad.
On what they bring to the Bok set-up, he said: “The younger players bring speed, agility, liveliness…there are a lot of guys that did well, but what surprised me the most is how this bunch of guys have that calmness.
“There is a maturity about them that I have not seen in 18 or 19 years olds before. They are not intimidated by game plans and sitting in session, and I think that filters through to the older guys.”
The Bulls were defeated in yet another United Rugby Championship Final on Friday night, suffering a 7-36 humiliation against Leinster at Croke Park, the same venue where they came short last year.
When asked about some of the performances of seasoned Springboks who are an integral part of the Springbok plan, like Handre Pollard, Erasmus said that poor performances in club colours isn’t necessarily a red flag for the bigger picture.
“It’s tough to point fingers at someone when he’s at his franchise. For example, the Sharks didn’t do really well, but when they get here, it’s different.
“It’s difficult to talk about franchise form, Ackers [Johan Ackermann] is such a good coach. Handre didn’t shoot lights out, but we know what he can do and why would he do badly all of a sudden…[you need to ask] is there an injury, is there not an injury. Maybe he just hasn’t done well for two weeks.”
