Boks to add clashes as Rassie crams the schedule and player roster in 2025

Springboks celebrate with the trophy after winning the 2024 Rugby Championship game between South Africa and Argentina in Mbombela, South Africa, 28 September 2024. EPA-EFE/Christiaan Kotze

By Craig Ray

5 Mar 2025

The Boks will play 15 matches and spend 137 days together in 2025 as they ramp up preparations for Rugby World Cup 2027.

Instead of slowing down and consolidating their power and status in the game, the Springboks are aiming to push themselves even further in 2025 with a crowded schedule and a thick player roster.

Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus confirmed the world champions will play 15 matches, 14 of them Tests in 2025. So far they have only announced a 13-Test schedule in 2025, but additional games against the Barbarians (non-Test) and possibly Japan (Test) are planned.

It’s the most in a single year since the 2007 season when the Boks played 17 matches and won Rugby World Cup 2007.

It’s not just the schedule that’s crowded, but the squad as well. Erasmus revealed there are 84 players in the Bok group this year that are going to be attending alignment camps and other online activities.

The management staff is now 21 strong. More than 100 people will orbit planet Springbok in 2025 and Erasmus, general manager Charles Wessels and an assorted cast back at South African Rugby HQ, must keep it on track.

It’s an ambitious path in a season sprinkled with some massive challenges and unknowns.

The Boks have announced 13 Tests so far – three in July against Italy and Georgia – six in the Rugby Championship and four on a November tour to Europe and Britain. That schedule sees Tests against Wales, Italy, France and Ireland.

But there will be a non-Test against a Barbarians team on 28 June. The venue has not been announced. And then there is one additional Test to be played, probably on 1 November. Japan look the most likely candidates.

Last year the Boks won 11 of 13 Tests, which included winning the 2024 Rugby Championship. Their two defeats were by one point in each game.

In 2023 they also won 11 of 13 Tests on their way to winning a fourth RWC title and by adding two additional matches the chances of an elusive undefeated season will drop slightly.

But winning for winning’s sake has never been Erasmus’ sole driving force. Of course he wants to win every Test but growth and opportunity, player and gameplan development and exposure to Test match intensity for new players are as important.

“I think we need this (season’s schedule) because we still want to filter some players and give a lot of players opportunity whilst winning,” Erasmus said from Saru’s offices this week.

“Yes, we have an eye on the future by rotating players at the correct times, which we hope will be effective in our planning.

“With the squad we’ve put together, we really are looking at all options and all positions to make sure that when the World Cup draws happens at the end of this year, which is pretty important, we are ranked well.

“And then, obviously, if you put players through pressure cooker situations in this year, two years out from the World Cup, you’ll learn a lot from them.”

Springboks celebrate with the trophy after winning the 2024 Rugby Championship title with victory against Argentina in Mbombela, South Africa, 28 September 2024. (Photo: EPA-EFE / Christiaan Kotze)

Transition?

Erasmus downplayed the idea that it was a transitional year, in the sense that older players would be phased out purely based on their age profile.

There are at least 14 players who will be 35 or older in 2027, but the Bok coaching set up is not fazed by a number. They will judge each case individually measured by physical performance, mentality, desire and attitude.

“People are starting to put brackets next to guys’ ages, and we do as well, as part of our succession planning,” Erasmus noted.

“But you can’t plan a guy’s career just around the World Cup. If he’s still good enough and he’s still number one, two, three in that position, but he might retire in 2026, it will be very unfair not to pick him now, just because he might end his career in 2026.

“If you look at that squad depth and our succession planning, I think there's a nice spread of older guys in the ‘red’ column, ‘amber’ guys between 25 and 30, and then younger guys 25 and 20.”

Head of athletic performance Andy Edwards, who has the massive task of overseeing training programmes for athletes ranging in age from 20 to 38, in various positions and at varying stages of fitness because of their clubs’ needs, takes a pragmatic view.

“The most important thing I think to look at is how do those players still become or are selectable and the rest of the coaching team?” Edwards said.

“Because if you focus only on one thing that's against what they need to be doing to be selectable for what their coaches want them to do, then it’s going to be the wrong thing.

“The term ‘age is just a number’ is really relevant. Just because a guy might be 35 years of age or older, his rugby stats and career will reveal more about how dense his seasons have been. It (his rugby ‘age’) doesn't necessarily represent his actual age if that makes sense.

“Lots of things come into that, how many games they’ve played, how much time they've off, how much injury time they’ve had over their careers, how much we can rotate them within the international periods to sustain them up until the next World Cup.

“There are lots of different ways we’re looking at the ageing group.

In 2023 we proved that the guys could win a World Cup being the oldest average age in that competition.”

Shape of the game

And what of the actual game in 2025? Has much changed since last year, are there new trends and tricks that Erasmus has seen, or that the Boks are possibly planning to deploy?

Well, maybe, reading between the lines of Erasmus’ answer to that question.

“There haven’t been a lot of law changes since last year but those that are in place, we can see there might need to be some technical adjustments,” Erasmus said.

“The way you stop mauls and the way you counter-ruck after a tackle has become very technical. A maul doesn’t just get stopped from the front, you can pull on the side.

“Although you can't change your bind, you can disrupt a maul in other ways.

“After a ruck, if you stay in the ruck, you can swing your foot around and still play the ball without playing the scrumhalf.

“So our mindset is just, listen, let's get on top of the new rules, or laws, or variations, or things that they are testing. Jaco (Peyper), and Felix (Jones) are on it.

“That will be part of Felix’s job so that we are not moaning about it, but be the first team that gets it right, hopefully.”

Who would bet against Rassie and the Boks getting the small details right, even within their ever-growing bigger picture? DM

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Transition?

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