Rassie Erasmus' cunning plan to keep the next generation of Springboks in SA

Mzwandile Stick has been confirmed as the team's head coach for the Springboks versus Barbarians curtain-raiser clash against South Africa's neighbours, with Rassie Erasmus revealing that SA Rugby has one ulterior motive for the fixture outside of getting youngsters to experience the Bok environment.

That is to tie several of the country's top rising stars to the Boks through South Africa's second-ranked team. As per World Rugby regulation nine, unions are permitted to nominate one senior team beyond the main international team, which ties a player to that country.

Since 2018, unions have not been allowed to designate their Under-20s National Representative Team as their next senior National Representative Team. So this year, the SA 'A' team will be South Africa's second senior team, and because they are facing an international side in Zimbabwe, players who feature against the Sables will have their international allegiance tied to South Africa.

Speaking to the media earlier this week, Erasmus confirmed that the match will capture players and was one of the objectives for the fixture.

"We hope to get some guys comfortable in the setup. The second is to get them into our game plan and the way we want to do things. We can't analyse Zimbabwe, but they're a World Cup team," he said.

"Then to get injured players and players who haven't played a lot in the last few months and get them game time. Then the ideal thing would be that the things that we trained in the two weeks actually pans out on the field like we want it to.

"Then, the SA 'A' team also captures quite a lot of players because it is our second-ranked team, and we play against a nation that is going to the World Cup, where all players in that game are captured."

What this means is that players who don the SA 'A' jersey in Gqeberha will be unable to represent another nation unless they meet World Rugby's Birthright Transfer regulations. They would need to have been born, or have a parent or grandparent born, in the nation which they wish to they wish to transfer, and then complete a three-year stand-down period and obtain the approval of World Rugby.

Essentially, SA Rugby could tie 23 of the country's top talents to the Springboks against Zimbabwe, meaning that they would not be able to play for another international team through residency, like player like Duhan van der Merwe, Pierre Schoeman and Paul Willemse.

This perhaps further explains why Erasmus invited so many of the South African U20 players into the camp for the double header in Gqeberha despite Kevin Foote's team preparing for the upcoming World Rugby U20 Championship.

It also comes amid SA Rugby high-performance GM Dave Wessels' complaints about player poaching, particularly from northern hemisphere nations, with the former Melbourne Rebels boss bemoaning the lack of compensation for countries who are exporters of talent.

When Bishops back Rynard Gordon joined Ulster's academy, Wessels took to social media and quipped: "We must get IRFU Rugby a Loyalty Shopper Rewards card!", referring to the fact that former Rondebosch and SA U18 flank Josh Neill linked up with Leinster's academy earlier this year and has since represented Ireland U20.

The ploy also comes after England received a rare exemption to select Bristol Bears centre Benhard Janse van Rensburg on exceptional circumstances grounds. The 29-year-old represented the Junior Boks when they were allowed to be nominated as the second senior team, but now qualifies under residency grounds for England, with World Rugby deeming that his 20 minutes off the bench in the third-fourth play-off should not forever preclude him from international rugby.

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