Bob Skinstad has blamed South Africa player burnout caused by a never-ending schedule for the country’s failure to punch its weight at club level – and voiced concern that it could impact the Springboks’ World Cup defence.

The world champion nation failed to get a team into the knockout rounds of this season’s Investec Champions Cup and also drew a blank in the later stages of the Challenge Cup.

That leaves Jake White’s Bulls as the last remaining hope of silverware in the final of the United Rugby Championship this Saturday, and they must do it the hard way – facing Leinster in the Dubliners’ Croke Park backyard.

Full-year schedule

“I was involved the other day in a conversation in which the point was made that South Africa aren’t turning up in Europe,” said Skinstad, a former Springbok captain.

“If you look at the URC and the Champions Cup, we still haven’t had the season off that we were supposed to get, because we’ve turned our season upside down for the UK.

“It was going to be summer UK rugby, but it’s not summer UK rugby. It’s turned into summer SA. Now we’ve got a full-year schedule. We’re playing rugby in every month of the year.

“So when people say, ‘why can’t they (SA clubs) make it through in Champions Cup?’ I’d say it’s down to pure game numbers. Something has to give eventually.

“And at the moment it’s our backs in the biggest competition, which is the Champions Cup. You see that we weren’t represented at all. We’ve been a little bit better in the URC.”

South Africa’s top players have been on the go pretty much since winning the 2023 World Cup, straddling both the northern and southern hemisphere seasons.

The past 12 months has seen the Springboks on parade in June, July, August, September and November – with globe-trotting club commitments in every month in between.

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Asked whether he is worried that successive years without a meaningful pause will deliver the Springboks to the next World Cup in a state of fatigue, Skinstad said: “I am.

“Look, I’ve got great faith in Rassie Erasmus and the fact that he doesn’t care what anyone says, he’s happy to put in 15 new guys in a rotational squad system, and he’s done it better than any other coach.

“We saw it against New Zealand and Wales in 2023. He played two completely different teams within two weeks of each other and both did very well.

“He’s continuously building as many players as possible in every position, and he plays the right player, not always the best player, the right player for the squad, more often than not.

“I think that that’s going to stand us in good stead. But do I think we’ve got a pile-up of too many games? Yes, I do.

“Look,” added Skinstad. “We’re never going to lack hunger going into any big tournament. It’s not in our DNA. We’ll absolutely go to Australia for the 2027 World Cup determined to make history by winning three in a row.

“But we are very fortunate to have Rassie. Without him I’d be a lot more concerned. He is the right man for the job because he’s got an absolutely refined sense of what’s most important for South Africa.”

Mid-year internationals

Given the fixture congestion, Skinstad is not unhappy that the Boks have a comparatively light July international window, with home Tests against Italy (2) and Georgia, 10th and 11th respectively in the world rankings, following a June 28 runaround against the Barbarians in Cape Town.

“There are no easy games in international rugby and certainly Italy and Georgia are not teams to take lightly,” he said. “But, yeah, it is [a] lighter [start] than an England, Ireland or France tour and I do think that is good for the Springboks.

“Because we need to get in little rest periods if we want to be really competitive in next year’s Champions Cup, which will be important when it comes to making big selection decisions going forward.”

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Src: Planetrugby.com - https://www.planetrugby.com/news/ex-springboks-captain-insists-year-round-schedule-is-hurting-south-african-success-and-why-pile-up-could-derail-world-cup-defence-hopes