Rassie Shuts Down Talk of Sacrificing 2026 for the World Cup

I had the privilege yesterday of attending my first ever Springbok press conference to kick start the 2026 international season. Rassie and Faf were in attendance and entertained a number of questions regarding the Boks injury list, preparation for the Nations Championship, the teams to face the Barbarians and Zimbabwe next weekend as well as questions around the squad selections once the Bulls wrap up with the URC.

I wanted to find out from Rassie what we should be looking out for from the Boks in 2026. With the past two seasons having passed, there was a heavy focus on building squad depth and exposing players to the Springbok set up. 51 players took to the field in 2024 and 49 got opportunity in 2025. We are now just over a year out from the Rugby World Cup in Australia and the focus will inevitably be shifting towards fine tuning the squad for that.

There is of course the added layer to this season in that there are two big trophies on offer for the Boks. The first ever edition of the Nations Championship gets underway this year. The two hemispheres will collide for bragging rights, whilst one team will walk away at the top during finals weekend at Twickenham in November. There is also the very exciting Greatest Rivalry Tour against the All Blacks coming up and with 4 test matches to determine the victor, there is a lot of high pressure game time on the cards.

There were mumblings in the media that Rassie and his coaching team would likely rest many frontline Boks for the Nations Championship and that it wouldn't be a major target for the Boks in 2026, whilst prioritizing the All Blacks tour and blooding more players in the other fixtures. With this in mind, I asked Rassie how success would be gauged this season. You can

Rassie was quite clearly on his message, as he has been since his arrival in 2018. The main thing will remain the main thing. The Boks want to win at all costs.

"If you don't keep on winning, you lose the momentum in all departments. Momentum in the fans, the whole mood about the Springboks when you don't win matches. So we totally understand that winning will always remain our priority."

It is great to know that the Springboks are in a string enough position to handle the upcoming test season, with all the players currently out injured. There is no room for excuses in this environment and now the guys who get their shot will be expected to step up and fill these gaps.

Rassie also confirmed that whilst the mindset has shifted towards the World Cup next year, there is still some squad depth concerns, with some players who still need to have test caps invested into them to ensure they are ready if called upon to represent us in Australia. One would imagine this encompasses players like Sacha, Ethan, Nthutuko and Fassi amongst a handful of others.

"I think we've got a pretty good idea which players we can take, which players have to put game time into but winning will always stay the most important thing, but definitely in some matches we'll have to get more game time into some guys who doesn't have enough caps for if we need them at the World Cup."

The Springbok season starts in just over a week. The Barbarians and Zimbabwe games create a great opportunity for the side to stretch out their legs and dust off the cobwebs. However in just a few weeks time they will have to be battle ready as they prepare to take on England, Scotland and Wales on home soil.

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