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Ex All black people Winger Jeff Wilson believes the Springboks have almost reached their ceiling under Rasie Erasmus after convincingly beating Dave Rennie’s side 3-1 in the recent series against rugby’s biggest rivals.
Erasmus has been rotating a lot lately Rugby World Cup cycle to build a mountain of depth ahead of the 2027 tournament in Australia, but Wilson believes that won’t matter as the Springboks can field just 23 players.
“The depth they’ve created is unbelievable, but you realize you can only pick 23 players. They’ve got some insurance, but they can only pick 23, and I don’t think there’s many players who can come into that group who have played outside of those last three Test matches and make a significant difference,” Wilson said on Sky Sport.
“I really don’t think there’s anyone there.”
The former 60-Test All Black explained that when you look at the recent four-Test series against the All Blacks, Erasmus chose not to use the impressive depth he has in his squad, sticking to the tried and true.
“He played his strongest side because he felt every game was a knockout. I think they are the best team in the world. Credit is credit. I don’t think they are far from their ceiling if they have already met it.”
“Them for me though is that they’re very similar to where we were in 2014 and in 2015. World Cup champions, in a great cycle, in a great place, and they’re the team to beat, as we were going into 2015. But they’re not unbeatable.
“We’ve shown they can concede points and try. It took us a semi-final in 2015 to go over the top of the Springboks; it came down to the wire. We’re one side away France it could knock them out of the Rugby World Cup.
“For me, I look at it and go, I think they’re close to their ceiling. Their ceiling is really good. They’re an outstanding team. I don’t know how much better they can get. I don’t know how much better they can get.”
“They have talent, and a lot of it,” Wilson said The Breakdown.
Experienced front-five Handre Pollard was the one Springbok absent from Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry, with Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and Manie Libbok reportedly overtaking Pollard in the No.10 pecking order.
“I just look at it and go, you can’t put yourself in a situation where you don’t know who your best team is. He knows who his best team is. I’d be very surprised if we saw Handre Pollard play in a big test match for the Springboks again. He might play other test matches but now there are other players who have taken over.
“He’s found some new talent no doubt, but I don’t think it’s significantly better than what’s out there.
“Can you tell me that Cheslin Kolbe could have done better than Kurt-Lee Arendse in that Test match? I find it hard to believe. You can only have 15 in the paddock. What they have is an insurance like no other team at the moment.”
Former Springboks halfback and rugby analyst Kevin Putt disagreed with Wilson, saying the Springboks were far from their ceiling.
“I don’t see it as a ceiling,” Putt replied.
“You talk about the squad at the moment. There are some of these guys coming through who still have such youth and with the 3-1 win Rassie’s autonomy has grown even more. You talked about the squad now, the All Blacks are playing a bit wide so yes we have some potential growth to see but they can do exactly the same.”
