Rassie Erasmus talks Boks' lock stocks ahead of Rugby World Cup

The World Champions look set to be without Lood de Jager, Salmaan Moerat and the versatile Pieter-Steph du Toit through injury for the beginning of the Boks' 2026 season.

But it's not just injury, it's age as well. Stalwarts Eben Etzebeth, Franco Mostert and de Jager are all vastly experienced but are also in their 30s. The 50-capped RG Snyman is 31 years old but isn't always available for alignment camps due to club commitments at Leinster. And Jean Kleyn (31) is relatively inexperienced in terms of caps.

Other players in the mix are Ruan Nortje, Ben-Jason Dixon and Moerat, who are all 27 but also currently lacking international experience for a World Cup.

"My honest opinion is that we are thin at lock, if you look at our lock depth, age bracket, and the number of caps that we have there," admitted Erasmus.

"Ruan and Salmaan are the settled, average-aged guys. Salmaan has done a lot for us. I know there are a lot of people who criticise him, but he does things for us sometimes in the team that help us in the way we want to play."

So who else is Erasmus looking at? Northampton Saints behemoth JJ van der Mescht is uncapped but his immense size has caught the Bok coach's attention. Locally, Lions flanker Ruan Venter has the height and pedigree. He earned his only cap in 2024. Finally, David Ribbans is capped for England but can still feature for South Africa having been born in Somerset West.

"JJ van der Mescht, will he have enough time [before the World Cup], and will we have enough hands-on time with him to get him into the Springbok culture and shape?" continued Erasmus.

"With every player we bring in, we let him understand how we do things and see how he handles the training sessions. I think JJ is a monster of a guy, 150kgs, 27 years old. Will we have enough time with him? Will he understand our culture? Do we really need him? At this stage, we look at our locks; it's RG on that side, Eben is suspended, and all of them are past 30.

"We have tried the other Ruan [Venter] to see if he could maybe do a job at lock. I think that the COVID era, where we lost three years of guys getting through Craven Week and the junior structures, it's costing us in a way.

"But we're looking at Ribbans and all the options. Not to say that those guys are getting their hopes up and think that they are in the Springboks mix.

"But if you look at the succession planning, some of it we will have to make some big calls in certain positions where guys haven't come through."

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