The Rugby World Cup being played in France has just under a fortnight to run but for many players hoping to be involved in the sport’s next global showpiece event, the buildup to 2027 in Australia starts this weekend with the beginning of the Vodacom United Rugby Championship.
The core of the Springbok team that won the 2019 World Cup in Japan has carried through to the current tournament, but glancing through the biographies of the players who played for them in their exciting win over the hosts in an exciting and tense quarterfinal on Sunday, it brought home that there is going to have to be some change heading into the next four-year cycle.
They’re not all over the hill in age, but there wasn’t a starting member of the Bok pack at the Stade de France who was under the age of 30. While Duane Vermeulen and Deon Fourie are Boks at this World Cup who are well beyond it, they are considered freaks of nature and you wouldn’t imagine taking an entire pack of players in their mid-30s or beyond that to Australia.
RG Snyman, who will be looking forward to a full URC season with new champions Munster, is one of the forwards on the bench who should be back for 2027, and so is the Hollywoodbets Sharks’ Ox Nche. Both players are 28, while Leicester Tigers’ Jasper Wiese turns that age on the day of South Africa’s semifinal against England.
But there’s going to have to be renewal in the four years before the next World Cup, and that should incentivise players who are considered the next cab off the rank in some conditions such as the DHL Stormers’ highly promising No8 Evan Roos, who was the URC Player of the Year in the inaugural season, his Vodacom Bulls counterpart Elrigh Louw and a couple of others.
Salmaan Moerat, recently installed as the Stormers’ regular captain in place of the departed Steven Kitshoff, who will be in Ulster colours once the World Cup is over, is another who will be hoping to be at the 2027 RWC, and ditto hooker Joseph Dweba and his Bulls counterpart Cobus Grobbelaar.
There are a few players in the Bok starting backline who are young enough to be around again in 2027, and all of them (Damian Willemse 25, Manie Libbok 26, Kurt-Lee Arendse 27) should take the experiences they’ve gained at the international level and playing at a World Cup back to franchise level when they return to Stormers in Willemse and Libbok’s case and the Bulls in Arendse’s.
Talking of the Bulls, it is going to be interesting to see if their coach Jake White will take the cue from the Springbok coaches by shifting Canan Moodie, just 20 years of age, to centre once all the Boks are back playing in the URC in mid-November.
The URC this year certainly isn’t taking any time about getting to the spicy games, with the Sharks now on their way to Ireland, where they will be starting off John Plumtree’s second stint as coach by playing champions Munster on Saturday. There’s an appetising rematch between the first two URC champion teams, and last year’s finalists, set for Limerick in just a couple of week’s time.
The Stormers haven’t lost to a fellow South African team in the URC since going down to the Emirates Lions in December 2021 so it is interesting to note they start with a potentially tough away fixture against those opponents in Johannesburg on Saturday. The Bulls, who along with the Sharks will be determined to close the gap the Stormers have opened in the South African Shield over the last two URC seasons, kick off their campaign against Scarlets in Pretoria on Sunday.
With the other four participating nations in the URC - Ireland, Wales, Scotland and Italy - all now out of the World Cup, and the international players therefore available for their clubs shortly, it will be a tough start for the South African teams, who won’t be expecting their Boks back for several weeks.
Weekend Vodacom United Rugby Championship fixtures
Zebre v Ulster (Parma, Saturday 14.00)
Connacht v Ospreys (Galway, Saturday 16.00)
Emirates Lions v DHL Stormers (Johannesburg, Saturday 16.05)
Dragons v Edinburgh (Newport, Saturday 16.05)
Munster v Hollywoodbets Sharks (Limerick, Saturday 18.15)
Cardiff Rugby v Benetton (Cardiff, Saturday 18.15)
Vodacom Bulls v Scarlets (Pretoria, Sunday 15.00)
Glasgow Warriors v Leinster (Glasgow, Sunday 17.00)
