Boks face unparallaled challenge as an ‘18-month season’ kicks off

England travelled to South Africa for their clash against the Springboks without captain Maro Itoje, who has been given time off to rest after a particularly taxing season with Saracens.

Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, RG Snyman and Kwagga Smith are part of a large South African contingent who will miss Nations Championship Tests this month, and France captain Antoine Dupont was ruled out of his team’s tour to Australasia after sustaining a calf injury in last week’s French Top 14 final.

“I would have liked for him to be present, like a lot of important players for us,” France assistant coach William Servat told reporters. “But the biggest shame is for the players.

“Antoine made the choice to come. It was a big choice for France. It was important to see that the captain wanted to be present, with his troops, one year from the World Cup in Australia.”

Given the present schedule and the modern demands of professional rugby, it simply isn’t possible to field the best players in every Test, especially after they’ve racked up an extraordinary number of matches and minutes for their clubs in the preceding domestic and Champions Cup fixtures.

The real issue is the absence of a global season that would standardise the players’ workload and rest periods, and ultimately reduce the number of fatigue-related injuries. Earlier this year, Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus called for decisive action on the matter, but it is unlikely to be resolved in the present four-year cycle, if at all.

Brutal Test schedule

As the new 2026-27 season in SA kicks off this weekend, it’s worth considering how Erasmus and the franchise coaches might navigate these challenges – not just over the course of the next year, but over an 18-month period that will culminate in the Rugby World Cup 2027 in Australia.

After the Tests against England, Scotland and Wales, the Boks will fly to Buenos Aires for a one-off against Argentina. The four-Test Greatest Rivalry series kicks off in August, and after playing Australia in Perth in late September, the Boks will head to Europe for four Nations Championship Tests in November.

In the past, the Rugby Championship schedule was truncated in World Cup years to allow teams ­sufficient time to prepare for the global tournament itself.

In 2027, however, the Boks will play six Rugby Championship matches before turning their attention to the big show in Australia.

Meanwhile, club competitions such as the United Rugby Championship (URC) and the Champions Cup will still run in the background, and the respective franchises will demand that the Springboks contribute to the cause.

Situation far from ideal

The South African Rugby Union (Saru) has done well to address the player welfare challenges since the four franchises pivoted to the northern hemisphere in 2021, implementing a strict 32-game cap as well a mandatory eight-week rest protocol over the course of a 12-month period.

The system is far from perfect, and the franchises have complained about the rigidity of the resting protocols as well as limited access to marquee players.

Nevertheless, SA Rugby and the franchises have tried to work together, and it’s worth noting that none of the South Africa-based Boks breached the game cap this past season.

Stormers flyhalf Feinberg-Mngomezulu and Bulls skipper Ruan Nortjé topped the local list with 29 appearances in the respective Tests, URC and Champions Cup fixtures. All but two of the overseas-based Boks – Thomas du Toit (Bath) and Malcolm Marx (Kubota Spears) – played fewer than 30 matches in this period.

Former All Blacks centre Conrad Smith currently serves as the head of player welfare at the International Rugby Players Association. The double World Cup winner is pushing for a universal game cap of 30 matches, a limit on consecutive match involvements (six) and a global calendar and dedicated rest periods.

The South African teams should be commended for how they have managed most of their players with those guidelines in mind.

And yet, certain problems persist. There is a bottleneck of fixtures during November, December and January when several Test and club tournaments overlap. Looking at the past season, some of the South African players soldiered on for 11 consecutive weeks.

Believe it or not, many of today’s players view injuries as a blessing in disguise, as these setbacks often provide them with a break they wouldn’t otherwise receive.
The franchises will argue the situation is far from ideal, but Springbok players such as Eben Etzebeth, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Faf de Klerk, ­Aphelele Fassi, Salmaan Moerat, Cameron Hanekom and Lood de Jager all played fewer than 15 games for club and country last season.

In theory, those who have made a complete recovery after a lengthy spell on the sideline should be raring to go ahead of a bumper 2026-27 season, which will run from this weekend until a potential World Cup final in Australia in November next year.

Avoiding burnout

Many of the players in the wider Bok group, however, have racked up a significant number of matches and game minutes over the past few seasons, and they will need to be managed carefully over the next 18 months. ­

Erasmus will have to juggle his group carefully over the course of the Nations Championship and the Greatest Rivalry Series that follows.

It is rumoured that Erasmus may take a second-string squad to Europe in November. Although he’s unlikely to rest his stars en masse, he should give a few overplayed veterans – perhaps Marx, Du Toit, Wilco Louw and a few others – a much-needed break.

Will that be possible, though, when so many competitions overlap in the current global structure? Will the clubs agree to an extended resting period for certain players – on top of everything else?

It seems unlikely, as the franchises will need their Boks for the Champions Cup in December and then for the key URC fixtures that follow.

The contracted Boks usually take their mandated rest period in February and March, when there are relatively few URC fixtures scheduled. What typically follows is a logistical nightmare in terms of travel and wall-to-wall games.

Thanks to this convoluted schedule, the best teams are punished for progressing to the business end of tournaments like the URC and Champions Cup.

Leinster, for example, qualified for both finals last season and played 13 games in 14 weeks at the back-end of the campaign. One can understand why many of Leinster’s Irish players might be dreading the three Nations Championship fixtures against Australia, Japan and New Zealand this month.

For many fans who have watched the Boks dominate the Test scene in recent years, the response to the above might be: So what?

The evidence suggests that Erasmus has built a wider squad to handle these challenges. Some might assume that the Boks have what it takes to dominate indefinitely, as most other nations don’t boast the same strength in depth.

The reality is that South African rugby is reaching a breaking point with the ­never-ending season compromising the players at club and international level.

Other nations are also starting to feel the effects, as seen by the recent withdrawals of Dupont and Itoje. If the Boks go on to win the Nations Championship and Greatest Rivalry Series in 2026 and manage to claim a third-consecutive World Cup title in 2027, it will be in spite of the global structures.

The current schedule isn’t serving the clubs or the Test teams, and as Erasmus himself has stated, the need for a global calendar that prioritises player welfare is greater than ever. DM

This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.