Following the announcement of the Springboks squad for the November Nations Championship, here are our five takeaways from Rassie Erasmus’ selections.

Top line: Age is just a number

We have seen both extremes of this from Erasmus this year. He rang up Deon Fourie before Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry Test series against the All Blacks, and he became the oldest player to represent the Springboks in the second match versus New Zealand – a record he broke in the next two games.

Fourie’s appearance in the clash in Baltimore was just 13 days before his 40th birthday, with the head coach reiterating the fact that the coaching team isn’t fazed about a player’s age but is more worried about their performances and whether they can produce at the highest level.

Erasmus has only emphasised that statement with his latest squad, including four players who played for the Junior Boks this year, two of which will still be eligible in 2027. They are lock Riley Norton, utility back Luan Giliomee, fly-half Yaqeen Ahmed and centre Markus Muller.

Norton comes as no surprise after he featured for South Africa against the Barbarians earlier this year and may well have already made his Test debut had he not sustained a hamstring injury. Giliomee and Muller, the pair who will still be eligible for Kevin Foote’s Junior Boks next year, are the two more shocking inclusions.

The former started the season brilliantly for the Sharks, switched to the Bulls and continued that form but is still extremely raw, and the same is very much true for Muller. He has hardly set the world alight in professional rugby, but it’s clear that the coaching team, plus the likes of Dave Wessels and Foote in the SA Rugby youth level, rate him incredibly highly.

If Muller debuts at any stage this November, he will break Frans Steyn’s record and become the youngest Springbok player in the professional era, with Giliomee not too far off, particularly if his first cap comes against Italy.

The injection of youth and Fourie’s absence doesn’t make this an entirely youthful squad either, as Erasmus has still leaned on several elder statesmen despite the setbacks to Cheslin Kolbe, Eben Etzebeth, Andre Esterhuizen, and Handre Pollard.

Lood de Jager (33), Franco Mostert (35), Siya Kolisi (35), Pieter-Steph du Toit (34), Cobus Reinach (36), Damian de Allende (34) and Jesse Kriel (32) all bring significant experience and pedigree whilst also raising the average age of the squad.

All in all, Erasmus has managed to stick to the winning formula that has served him well in recent seasons while still being able to reward form and test the depth of the South African player pool even further.

Thomas du Toit, Ox Nche, Wilco Louw and Gerhard Steenekamp are all nailed-on selections now, while Zachary Porthen is working his way to becoming the same. Ntuthuko Mchunu’s selection is just reward for his form, getting the nod over Boan Venter, while Erasmus has selected just one out-and-out hooker in Malcolm Marx. Jan-Hendrik Wessels and Marco van Staden will provide further cover, the former doubling up as a loosehead prop and the latter as a flanker.

Salmaan Moerat made his return for La Rochelle early this month and is shot right back into the squad, providing lock options with Ruan Nortje, De Jager, Norton and Mostert in the absence of Etzebeth and RG Snyman.

Paul de Villiers, Kolisi, Cameron Hanekom, Jasper Wiese, and Pieter-Steph du Toit continue as they were throughout this year but are now joined by the uncapped Emmanuel Tshituka, who gets the nod over his brother Vincent and Elrigh Louw.

Reinach, Morne van den Berg and Grant Williams are clearly the frontline scrum-halves and are selected once again. Giliomee and Ahmed are listed among the fly-halves with Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and Manie Libbok, whilst Muller joins the midfield options that include De Allende, Kriel and Canan Moodie.

Seb de Klerk is the sixth and final uncapped player called into the squad, and he is joined by outside backs Aphelele Fassi, Ethan Hooker, Edwill van der Merwe, Kurt-Lee Arendse, and Damian Willemse.

Need for speed

De Klerk is a selection that would have surprised very few who have attended or listened to Erasmus’ press conferences since last year. The Bulls winger has had untimely injuries that have ruled him out of contention for the Green and Gold jersey, but his name has been repeatedly raised by the head coach when discussing injuries.

The Bulls flyer has many great attributes that have led to his call-up, but the one that is his standout feature is his raw out-and-out pace – simply put, he is rapid. That matters. Aerial ability can be taught, defensive structures learnt, attacking patterns practiced, but getting pace like De Klerk has cannot be acquired in the same manner.

Get him into space, and there are very few players who can catch him. With Kolbe ruled out, there is a need for more speed in the Springboks’ back division, and the former Pumas star brings that and plenty of it.

With France blessed with blistering quick backs and the same being true for Italy, the Bulls man could be a great counter, as could Gilomee, who also offers flexibility – more on that later.

Glaring problem Erasmus isn’t addressing

While Erasmus is injecting pace and youth into his squad, there is one position he isn’t looking after enough – hooker. Since 2018, Marx and Bongi Mbonambi have dominated the two hooking positions in Springboks’ matchday 23s. That started to change last year when the latter fell out of favour and due to injury and a disciplinary spat with the Sharks, he hasn’t been able to force his way back into the squad.

In Marx, the Boks have the best player on the planet and, by virtue of that, the best hooker too. However, the depth of the waters below the powerhouse double World Cup winner is murky.

Johan Grobbelaar looked to be separating himself from the crowd this year but hasn’t really been backed in the big matches often enough, with Erasmus calling on the almost 40-year-old Fourie to deputise for Marx during the RGR series. Andre-Hugo Venter has been handed a couple of opportunities but also hasn’t established himself as a Springboks regular, while the same is true for Marnus van der Merwe.

The Boks are handing opportunities to two 19-year-old backs with limited professional rugby under their belt, a 20-year-old lock in a similar position which is all good in well in building depth but in one of the most technically and physically demanding positions, they aren’t investing as they should.

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For November, Marx is joined in the squad by Wessels, who has seemingly shaken his utility forward tag in the squad announcements to be listed as a hooker. Mchunu’s recall suggests that Wessels will in fact be looked at as purely a hooker this November, but will he and Marx be enough cover for the month?

Surely taking Grobbelaar or even 20-year-old Sharks hooker Esethu Mnebelele would have been beneficial for the players mentioned and the squad as a whole. Instead, Van Staden will also provide cover as a flank-hooker hybrid.

Erasmus won’t need reminding of what happened to Marx at the 2023 World Cup, and back then, he had an in-form, fit as a fiddle Mbonambi to fall back on – the same cannot be said now. Fourie deputised for Mbonambi then too and did a sterling job in doing so, but instead of properly addressing the hooker stocks problem, it just isn’t being addressed as seriously as it should.

One thing is certain: if Wessels is to be the man that the Springboks rely on as Marx’s deputy, he needs a good run of games – difficult ones too – in order to really test his ability in the position, with most of his previous caps coming at prop.

Versatility remains crucial

Versatility has been a swear word of sorts in South African rugby circles over the years, but under Erasmus, it has been embraced as a strength. While it has perhaps made the hooker position below Marx arguably weaker, it has been a real asset in most other areas and a trait that the staff looks for when selecting the squad.

That is evident with four of the six uncapped players called up. Norton has played much of his professional rugby in the second row but could easily switch to blindside flanker as he certainly has the athleticism and physicality to do so.

Tshituka, the new cap who will possibly fly most under the radar, is comfortable in all three loose forward positions. The younger of the Tshituka brothers, Manny isn’t quite as much of a force at lineout time but is certainly effective in the collisions, with that and his positional flexibility earning him the nod.

Ahmed is an out-and-out fly-half, but his inclusion could allow for Feinberg-Mngomezulu to shift into centre or full-back if the Boks wish to test that out in November, while De Klerk has been mentioned by Erasmus as a possible centre, a position he has been deployed at for both the Bulls and Pumas previously.

Giliomee is perhaps the most intriguing. He has been listed among the fly-halves despite not playing there for the Sharks and Bulls this campaign; he has been deployed at full-back. The teenager could easily feature on the wing, full-back and fly-half, but there have been many who have suggested that he could play scrum-half too.

Giliomee is of a similar size to Kolbe and also has a wonderful skill set. Considering that the Bok coaching team trained Kolbe in the scrum-half, it’s not an outrageous notion that they could do the same with the newbie. It’s also worth noting that he has been picked ahead of Quan Horn, who was routinely selected throughout this year.

It’s not just limited to the uncapped players, with the Du Toits both renowned for their versatility, while Mostert can still get a job done on the side of the scrum. Williams has regularly and superbly covered the wing for South Africa, whilst Hooker can shift into any of the centre roles and on the wing – Moodie covers 13 and wing too.

Injuries provide opportunities

Kolbe, Etzebeth, Esterhuizen and Pollard. Those were the four big absentees that were featured in SA Rugby’s statement announcing the squad, but the injury list extends far beyond that. It includes the likes of Snyman, Kwagga Smith, Jean-Luc du Preez, Vusi Moyo, Ruan Venter, Fourie, Ben-Jason Dixon and even Frans Malherbe.

As much as Erasmus is giving opportunities next month, his hand has been forced in many ways and he has gone looking for solutions. Moerat and Norton are two players he has turned in the locks; De Villiers has emerged as a proper international flanker in the absence of Smith, du Preez, and others, and the same is true for Hanekom.

Gilomee is called up in the absence of Kolbe and even Moyo and Pollard, with the same applying to Ahmed with regard to the latter pair.

The hole that Erasmus hasn’t been able to plug is the one that Esterhuizen’s absence has created. De Allende could potentially double up as a centre flanker, but his dominance of the number 12 jersey led to the experiment, so they aren’t going to shift him anytime soon.