Flanker Paul de Villiers has been one of the outstanding rookies for the Springboks in the three Nations Championship Tests following his debut against England. He came in for injured captain Siya Kolisi, who looks set to return against Argentina.
The growing pressure that young Paul de Villiers is exerting on veteran Siya Kolisi is a microcosm of the system Rassie Erasmus has put in place to ensure there is a constant pipeline of players feeding a formidable Springbok team.
I recall when Erasmus played for the Boks in the second half of the 1990s. The Springbok coach had a core group of players who featured in virtually every Test and were replaced only through injury. Player rotation had not yet been invented.
It was one of the reasons the Boks were often poor in the first season after a World Cup. The incoming coach would effectively start afresh with a new group of players.
Erasmus not only embraced rotation to build depth, but he also perfected it. That is why he can comfortably keep one group of players at home in Johannesburg while sending a 30-man squad to Buenos Aires to face Argentina on August 8.
