{"id":212629,"date":"2025-10-20T07:16:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T07:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/212629\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T07:16:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T07:16:08","slug":"nick-malletts-special-springboks-duo-who-may-succeed-pieter-steph-du-toit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/212629\/","title":{"rendered":"Nick Mallett’s ‘special’ Springboks duo who may succeed Pieter-Steph du Toit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Springboks boss Nick Mallett insists that Elrigh Louw or Cameron Hanekom could succeed Pieter-Steph du Toit when the legendary flanker eventually calls it a day.<\/p>\n

The two-time World Rugby Player of the Year is the wrong side of 30 and will be 35 by the time of the next Rugby World Cup but he remains a key part of the South African set-up.<\/p>\n

Du Toit<\/a> has continued his fine form in 2025 as Rassie Erasmus\u2019<\/a> men retained the Rugby Championship title earlier this month.<\/p>\n

Erasmus is already looking to the future by bringing in some younger players ahead of the 2027 global tournament in Australia.<\/p>\n

Horror injury<\/p>\n

Louw was one of those to receive plenty of game time in 2024 but he suffered a nasty injury at the start of the year and probably won\u2019t return until February 2026.<\/p>\n

However, Mallett still has high hopes for the Bulls star and believes that he and Hanekom have what it takes to earn that role in the Springboks<\/a> side.<\/p>\n

\u201cElrigh, when he returns from injury, has the height, physical strength and rugby intelligence to become an excellent seven-flank,\u201d he told Rapport.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe other very special player is [Cameron] Hanekom. Maybe not quite as tall, but an excellent rugby player with a very high performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has a very high tackle count, a good passing game in contact situations and carries the ball very well. He also wins loose balls, which is an added bonus.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf neither of them are fit to tour, there is the possibility of using [Ruan] Nortj\u00e9 as a seven-flank. He covers the ground well, has a very good engine, makes a lot of tackles and is an excellent lineout exponent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Springboks v All Blacks: Winners and losers from the \u2018Rugby\u2019s Greatest Rivalry\u2019 tour announcement including the bigwigs\u2019 \u2018biggest error\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

Hanekom is another Bulls player currently nursing an injury but he is expected to return later this year.<\/p>\n

It may be too soon for the November internationals but the 23-year-old is very highly rated by those in South Africa.<\/p>\n

Usually a number eight, former Springboks back-rower and captain Corne Krige insists that he has the ability to switch to the side of the scrum when Du Toit retires.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Cameron can definitely step into Pieter-Steph\u2019s place,\u201d Krige said. \u201cHe can \u2018jackal\u2019 in the fight. Jasper [Wiese] is good at eight, so I\u2019ll move Cameron to seven\u2026 just my opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018No gimmicks\u2019<\/p>\n

Another former Boks flanker to offer his view was Willem Alberts who, like Mallett, is a fan of Louw and his uncomplicated approach to the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI enjoy his game, because there are no gimmicks,\u201d Alberts said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat you see is what you get. Elrigh is tough and straight forward. I really like that he puts his body on the line for his teammates.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think if Elrigh is going to play, the composition of the loose trio is important, complementing his strengths.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alberts, who started his career at the Lions and earned 43 South Africa caps, also put forward another name, but admits that he is not quite at Test level just yet.<\/p>\n

\u201cA young player I like is the Lions\u2019 Ruan Venter. By dominating physically against men, he was able to do things at 21 that I don\u2019t think I could do in the first five years of my career,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPhysically he certainly has what it takes to play Test rugby, but I think psychologically he still has a way to go. He needs guidance from a good coach\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Ruan Venter needs that kind of mentor\/coach. It feels to me like he\u2019s struggling to take that next level at the Lions.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s already shown he can be a Bok, but needs that next step to be in the Pieter-Steph class. If he proves himself a little and is pulled into the Bok group, guys like Rassie and Daan Human can hopefully turn him into a monster.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: What Rassie Erasmus will miss with World Rugby\u2019s new tournament as Springboks boss lobbies for Six Nations alignment<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Springboks boss Nick Mallett insists that Elrigh Louw or Cameron Hanekom could succeed Pieter-Steph du Toit when…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":212630,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[348,3482,50,91534,91535,5903,4247,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-212629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-home-page","tag-internationals","tag-news","tag-nick-mallett","tag-pieter-steph-du-toit","tag-rugby","tag-south-africa","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}