Boks must beef up bench before World Cup

The replacements Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus made late in their heartbreaking defeat to the All Blacks have been the topic of many discussions around water coolers this week.

In general they don’t sit pretty with Bok fans, and some are even calling for Erasmus’ head because he took key players like Faf de Klerk, Willie le Roux and Malcolm Marx off.

There are two things wrong with that logic.

Firstly, most of the changes were forced because De Klerk got cramp and Le Roux concussed. Secondly, there are no guarantees that the Boks would have won.

Yes, squandering a 17-lead and seeing the All Blacks come back to snatch a win from the jaws of defeat is pretty damn tough, but hey, that is life.

The Kiwis should have won the previous meeting in Wellington – had Beauden Barrett slotted four conversions, instead of two, out of six.

So the Boks won when they should have lost and lost one they should have won.

In the end, the combined score over the two meetings was 66-66 and that is pretty amazing for a team who lost 57-0 to the very same All Blacks last month.

Calling for Rassie’s head is very dramatic as he has just overseen the Boks first win in New Zealand in nine long years and barring a few hiccups, couldn’t have done a much better job with the hand he was dealt.

Getting back to Loftus, before we start questioning the Boks’ conditioning or their tactics, let’s give the Kiwi bench their due.

It’s probably been over a decade that New Zealand have been blessed with enough quality players to fill more than two teams, and their B Team is probably the world’s second-best team behind their A Team.

That is the depth their system provides.

For every Sam Cane walking around, they have an Ardie Savea on the bench; for every Aaron Smith, there is a TJ Perenara, and for Barrett they have the more-than-capable Richie Mo’unga. In short, they are spoilt for choice.

The Boks are not. Well not yet anyway.

When De Klerk was forced off, he was replaced by Embrose Papier, who had only played scrumhalf once in his three previous Test appearances off the bench.

In New Zealand’s case, Perenara made his 51st appearance in replacing Smith. There is simply no comparison.

The Boks found their groove with their 15 best players and were able to beat the All Blacks, but at Loftus the Kiwis relied on a 23-man effort to strike back.

So it’s clear that Erasmus needs to find a quality bench for World Cup duty next year and the only way to do that is give the inexperienced players more game time over the next 10 months.

But he’s got time on his side, and it’s better to learn this harsh lesson now than in the World Cup.

If De Klerk turns over an ankle on the eve of the quarterfinals and the Boks are light on scrumhalf replacements, then you can blame Erasmus.