Springboks great Duane Vermeulen could realistically return to rugby this weekend and lace up his boots against Wales at the Principality Stadium.
The double Rugby World Cup winner has been listed as player 25 for South Africa’s final game of the year, with the match taking place outside of the official World Rugby window.
Vermeulen played the last of his 76 Tests in the World Cup final victory over New Zealand over two years ago, and has since joined the Springboks coaching structures as ‘roving coach’.
Ahead of the match against the Welsh, the Boks released several players back to their clubs in Japan, England, Ireland and South Africa, leaving Erasmus with just 24 players for the final game of the year.
It’s standard for teams to list two extra reserves, sometimes more, for matches in the event of an injury in the build-up to the game or even the warm-ups.
Duane’s our player 25
Prop Ntuthuko Mchunu is one of those players, and Erasmus has revealed that Vermeulen is the other.
It’s been widely reported that SA Rugby was locked in discussions with the SA franchises around which players would and wouldn’t be available to the Boks for the match, with clubs demanding a fee per player.
The monetary impact certainly factored into the selections as the Springboks head coach further explained that the 7-1 bench split ploy was not the ideal selection policy for this game, but one made through necessity.
“The team selection wasn’t one that we planned at the beginning of the year to go 7-1 against them,” Erasmus told reporters.
“It’s actually the only guys available after discussions with our franchises. This team is almost forced on us.
“Our player 24 is Ntuthuko Mchunu, and player 25, we always appoint two additional players, is Duane Vermeulen.
“So one injury and Thuks is in, and another injury and Duane is in. That’s the chance we were willing to take for our franchises and for them to have a proper restart in the URC.
“It looks like we want to dominate with the pack of forwards, but our hand was a bit forced with this.”
Cobus Reinach’s milestone
Saturday’s game will see scrum-half Cobus Reinach earn his 50th Test cap for his country, with the veteran back named as the only backline player on the bench.
While it has been a standout year for the Stormers’ halfback, Erasmus states that he hasn’t forgotten about the other number nines, who are not with the squad.
However, he spoke highly of the scrum-half who has taken on extra responsibilities this year as a leader in the team.
“We will never forget guys like Faf and Jaden, and there are a couple of guys who are not on tour that we think are in the mix for 2027,” he said.
“But Cobus has been unbelievable this year. He really is taking a role where he is helping the other nines, but I’ve never seen him so involved with planning and tactics and those kinds of things. It’s funny because you don’t quite know when a player gets to that, and he’s really taking a senior role in helping Grant.
“He also understands that with his 50th match, having a 7-1 bench split and Kwagga is covering wing as well, you don’t want your nine to start, and then he goes from nine to wing.
“So, we’ve got Kwagga is also covering for us in the back line and then Ben-Jason also, if we do get three injuries in the back line, which is very possible in a game like this. But for him getting his 50th obviously, he’ll get to run out in front, but it was like last week for RG, it’s just accepting that a start is not the best thing for the team with a 7-1 split and in covering a few positions, but a top man.”
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