Bulls speedster Cheswill Jooste is one of the uncapped players invited to the Springboks alignment camp.
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There is never a dull moment when Rassie Erasmus reveals a squad of players for an alignment camp, but his policy is constant — you are never too old or too young to play for the Springboks. Form is paramount; the rest are details.
And true to form, Rassie will always throw in a few bolters to keep us on our toes — last year it was Ikeys Tigers star Ntokozo Makhaza, now it is schoolboy stars Markus Muller and Kai Pratt. They were in Matric a few months ago and have yet to play senior rugby for their respective franchises, the Stormers and Sharks.
Like Makhaza, Muller and Pratt are miles away from playing for the Springboks. And Rassie will tell us (again) in his press conference on Monday that he invites talented youngsters to camps so that he can meet them and get to know them.
It is a similar story with most of the 11 uncapped players invited, although some of them are stronger blips on Rassie’s radar than others. The Bok coach wants to introduce these youngsters to the Springbok environment and give them a strong taste of how the team operates.
So if they do later crack the nod, they are not starting from scratch. It is also about inspiring the youngsters to do more to better their performances — when you are 19, 20 or 21 and you get to rub shoulders with the likes of Eben Etzebeth, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Handre Pollard, et al, you are going to go home and straight to the gym or training field, because you want more of that experience.
Besides prop Pratt and centre Muller, the nine other uncapped players are: Emmanuel Tshituka, Siphosethu Mnebelele, Paul de Villiers, Riley Norton, Bathobele Hlekani, Jaco Williams, Sebastian de Klerk, Cheswill Jooste and Haashim Pead.
Not all of them are going to make it, and those that do will likely have to wait a season or two for their chance.
For example, the SA Schools team typically provides around 20 per cent of the SA Under-21 team, and in turn, only about 20% of the Junior Boks make it to the senior team.
Last year, Erasmus invited 16 newcomers to his first alignment camp, but just four went on to play for the Boks in 2025 — Neethling Fouche, Asenathi Ntlabakanye, Cobus Wiese and Ethan Hooker.
A lot of what Rassie is doing is about succession planning, and thank goodness we have it because a lack of it was the Achilles heel of the Boks for decades.
Before Rassie’s appointment in 2018, SA Rugby had the fatal policy of employing Springbok coaches in four-year blocks.
Why would the Bok coach bother about what would happen to the team after he finished his four-year cycle? He would play only his best players to get the best possible results, and hoped they would come at the World Cup, the culmination of the coach’s cycle.
Post the World Cup, a new coach would take up the reins and start from scratch with many new players because a swathe of senior players had retired after the World Cup.
We should bear in mind, too, that the 49 players in camp in Cape Town next week are only part of Rassie’s planning — this camp will be followed by an online ‘camp’ with 21 overseas-based players.
Those players will form a big chunk of the match-23 for the season kick-off in July in the Nations Cup matches against England, Scotland and Wales. Think superstars like Cheslin Kolbe, Jesse Kriel, Malcolm Marx, Lood de Jager, Damian de Allende, Jasper Wiese, Kurt-Lee Arendse, Manie Libbok, and Kwagga Smith.
The other side of the alignment camp coin is the veterans who have been excluded. No Willie le Roux, Vincent Koch, Bongi Mbonambi, Trevor Nyakane, Faf de Klerk.
It is not a question of age — Fran Malherbe, 34, has been invited to the camp as he concludes his recovery from injury, but more about players tapering off in form, although of that aforementioned group, Koch has been scrumming well for the Sharks.
Also, there is nothing Erasmus doesn’t know about those players, and if they hit form in the URC and there are injuries at the Boks, he can pull them back in.