It wasn’t the weekend’s main event, but if Rassie Erasmus watched Ulster’s Challenge Cup semi-final against Exeter Chiefs, he would have noted both an area of South African strength and the lingering weakness of a player he has backed for the Springboks.
The latter point first: Joseph Dweba’s throwing was what set the Boks back when he got his big opportunity as the starting hooker against the All Blacks in Joburg in 2022. On the evidence of his poor throwing in the half hour he spent on the Ravenshill field for Exeter, it continues to be his achilles heel.
Countering that was the stand-out, man-of-the-match performance turned in by former Stormers and Junior Bok No 8 Juarno Augustus for Ulster. Augustus was called up for squad training last year, but injury intervened.
Not that the Boks have any problems at loose forward. Any country that can afford not to play the excellent Evan Roos in almost every Test match he is available for has a lot going for it at loose forward, and that is the case with South Africa.
It is not so much the case in some other areas, at least when it comes to experienced players being available right now, and Erasmus does have a bit to mull over before the Boks play their first official Test match of the 2026 international season against England in Joburg two months from today.
For a start, there is the potential problem at lock caused by the injury to the man who was notably missing from Leinster’s win over Toulon in their Champions Cup semi-final, RG Snyman. Snyman will be out for most, if not all, of the international season.
His absence would not be felt as much were Eben Etzebeth playing every week and providing confidence that he will be an ever-present force during the Boks’ 2026 campaign.
But the most capped Bok has played only one game since he was suspended following the eye-gouging incident that marred the last international match of 2025.
In that game he was injured and ruled out of the rest of the Sharks’ season. Now he is in a race against time to be ready for the internationals.
Even if he is ready, his long period of inactivity might lead to rust, which could also be the case for another player in his position, Salmaan Moerat. The Stormers captain has been out since January with a toe injury, and while it is hoped he will return during the URC playoffs, the La Rochelle-bound second row forward is injury-prone.
Then there is Lood de Jager. The 2019 World Cup winner was an influential figure during the Boks’ successful 2025 campaign but has been out of rugby since January after undergoing a hip operation and is also not expected to be ready for the new international season.
Blindside flank Pieter-Steph du Toit could have been an option at lock but is also out, while the Stormers’ JD Schickerling, who could have come into the reckoning amid the lock mini-crisis, has just been ruled out for up to six months. All of which should make it more likely that JJ van der Mescht, formerly of the Sharks and now playing for Northampton Saints, will get his first international call.
Van der Mescht was part of the overseas player alignment camp. That is the luxury Erasmus has that some of the coaches at other nations don’t have: his options are deepened by being able to select from overseas.
Faf de Klerk won’t be an overseas-based player by the time the international season starts, as he is returning home to play for the Cheetahs. De Klerk didn’t play much last year, but he could well be a starting Bok again due to the injuries to Cobus Reinach and Grant Williams, while Jaden Hendrikse has struggled with a run of concussions.
Faf and Morné van den Bergh are currently the only fit Bok scrumhalves, although, on his recent form, the Bulls scrumhalf Embrose Papier, capped near the start of the Erasmus era, could come into the reckoning.
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