State of the Nation: Rassie Erasmus’ ‘regrets’ despite the Springboks’ ‘rude health’ after completing an 11-year first to end 2024 on a high

Following the conclusion of their 2024 Autumn Nations Series, we update you on the state of the participating nations. Next up, it’s Rassie Erasmus’ Springboks.

South Africa enjoyed a successful start to their international season, drawing a tight series 1-1 with Ireland, losing the second Test by a single point before going on to claim a first full Rugby Championship title after beating both the Wallabies and All Blacks twice.

During this time, Erasmus chopped and changed his matchday 23s giving several young players and fringe stars to make their mark and did so successfully.

This combined with the success of 2023, meant that expectations were high when they departed South African shores and headed north to tackle Scotland, England and Wales respectively, looking to complete an 11-year first: go unbeaten in November.

Autumn Nations Series summary

Erasmus did not change tack from what was successful earlier in the year as a largely rotated team armed with a 7-1 split was named to tackle Scotland at Murrayfield in South Africa’s first touring match.

It was a bold, brave gamble from the Springboks boss who admitted that he had one eye on England six days later and used the 7-1 forwards on the bench to get a big impact from his packs in both games. And unsurprisingly, Erasmus’ ploy worked perfectly as South Africa ran in four tries and denied the Scots any in a convincing 32-15 win.

Despite the 17-point victory, Erasmus was not pleased with the performance as the Boks boss continued to set an incredibly high bar for his players and he was in a similar mood a week later when the benefits of rotation worked wonders again as South Africa emerged nine-point victors in a closely fought encounter at Twickenham against England.

After going two from two, a clean sweep in the autumn looked like a forgone conclusion as the world champions headed to Cardiff to face a woeful winless Wales outfit. It was a far different occasion from what the Springboks had encountered in their previous visits to the iconic Principality Stadium as a once battle-hardened, experienced Welsh outfit was now a baby-faced team in a rut and rebuild. Frankly, Warren Gatland’s men were no match and despite putting in a brave effort, they were comfortably swept aside.

Standout players

We have to start with the World Rugby Player of the Year Pieter-Steph du Toit. He featured in just one and a half matches this November but he was hugely impactful during that period and got through a boatload of work on both sides of the ball as he continued to perform at the ridiculously high standard that he set earlier in the year.

Meanwhile, the other Du Toit, Thomas was outrageously brilliant as he caused the Scottish scrum all kinds of problems before obliterating his Bath teammate Archie Griffin in Cardiff. He would have loved to also have a crack at England but Wilco Louw showed just how deep the Springboks’ front-row depth is with a standout shift at Twickenham – his first cap since 2021.

With Erasmus making so many alterations throughout the three Tests, it is a bit difficult to single out stars but Cheslin Kolbe and Kurt-Lee Arendse lit up Twickenham and Cardiff while Damian de Allende was superb in the last two matches as well.

It is also worth highlighting the cameos of Handre Pollard, who closed out all three victories in style and in different manners, while Grant Williams also ended a successful individual year on a high.

 

Success story

The big success for the Springboks this November and in fact this year as a whole has been how they have broken the glass ceiling where they have failed previously. They finally got their hands on the Rugby Championship title, the Freedom Cup and beat the Wallabies at Suncorp Stadium. Then fast forward to November and they have gone unbeaten after failing to do so for over a decade – as we noted before their departure, anything less would have been a failure.

From a player point of view, Gerhard Steenekamp has been nothing short of phenomenal in the absence of Steven Kitshoff and the same applies to the other side of the scrum with Thomas du Toit and Louw.

What makes the year all the more remarkable is the fact that Erasmus used 50 players to achieve all this as he tested the player pool’s depth and that number could have risen even more with Nico Janse van Rensburg and Jean Kleyn spending time with the squad but not playing.

Heading into the new year, the Springboks are in rude health and November was clear evidence of that as they played far from their best rugby of 2024 but still managed to create a bit of history and comfortably win all three of their matches to cap off a wonderful year.

 

Main regret

The manner in which the Springboks delivered the victories will be the main gripe. As mentioned above, the coaching staff was not pleased by the three performances and in each match, they had the opportunity to dominate and rack up a statement score against the northern hemisphere teams.

Perhaps the one regret that may trump the margins of victory is the opponents that the Springboks played as many fans were left yearning for a clash against France, who were the form Six Nations team this November, or even a ‘series decider’ against Ireland after the 1-1 result in July. However, that’s just not how the fixture list fell and those ‘grudge matches’ will have to wait a little bit longer with Italy and Georgia visiting the Republic next July.

If one considers 2024 as a whole, the main regret will be the loss in Argentina. The Springboks had a chance to wrap up the Rugby Championship with a round to spare and really should have won that match. That and the loss to Ireland in Durban with the game coming down a clutch drop goal from Ciaran Frawley. Ultimately, the Springboks were four points away from a perfect record in 2024.