Many want to tweak the laws of the game to de-power Rassie Erasmus' all-conquering Springboks. But would it make any difference?
A lot of people are scared of animals. There are the obvious ones like arachnophobia and then there are the more obscure animal fears, such as alektorophobia – which is the fear of chickens.
Some of the major animal fears get a lot of unjustified hype, especially when you consider the regularity with which you’ll encounter them.
Selachophobia being a fine example, as you’re reasonably unlikely to encounter a Shark – unless you’re swimming in Durban or wandering around Sale.
But there is one animal that doesn’t even have its own medical/ Latin term even though virtually everyone is seemingly terrified of them – Springboks.
Why the rugby world is terrified of the Springboks
The Springboks demolish Ireland’s scrum during the Autumn Internationals. (Photo By David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile via Getty Images)
If you read social media, Sprinbokofobia is rampant. It’s a valid phobia – the Boks were devastating in 2025. Yes, they lost two matches, but they won 13 in what is without doubt the most competitive top ten that men’s rugby has ever seen.
What seems to be particularly galling to many non-Bok fans/ media/ pundits etc., is that the Boks are supposed to be in transition post RWC and as a result more fragile – but they aren’t.
If you look at Ireland, New Zealand, France etc., their RWC cycles and rebuilds have left them weaker as they adjust. Yet the Boks are rotating their squads, selecting younger players, and getting stronger.
Read more: Why Lawrence Dallaglio loves the Champions Cup
The word ‘blooding’ youngsters used to have negative connotations in test rugby, it used to mean that your squad would become weaker, before coming stronger – like some weird Medieval medical experiment with leaches.
Yet the Boks seem to have a very different result with ‘blooding’. Their blooding is giving off more supernatural vampire vibes, rather than the weaknesses associated with leaches nibbling on your flesh.
Ask yourself this, how many teams have won two Rugby World Cups on the bounce, and yet get stronger as they approach the third?
Should we change the laws to weaken the Springboks?
The cure to most phobias tends to focus on therapy, yet with Sprinbokophobia the suggested cure seems to be law changes.
The law changes that many Sprinbokophobics seem to want usually revolve around power – more specifically depowering the Boks.
Most of the tweaks seem to involve scrummaging and it’s easy to see why. The current Bok’s scrum is without doubt the most destructive that the game has ever seen – ever.
Related: What is a scrum and why do they happen?
Prior to this current period of Boks’ scrummaging dominance, scrum penalties used to be a nice optional extra in test rugby terms. If your test team managed to win the odd scrum pen, then great. But the current Bok’s scrum has currently turned scrum pens from rocking horse faeces into the more widely available rabbit variety.
The proposed depowering of the scrum isn’t something that’s solely there to weaken the Boks, either.
There is a large body of supporters and media who loath scrummaging. They think that scrummaging has become too dominant and ‘unreffable’.
Often citing the 1970s and 1980s as the glory years of stable scrummaging – yet the data is the complete opposite. For example, in the 1987 Rugby World Cup there 32 scrums per game completed at 89%, yet in 2019 there were just 14 per game completed at 95%.
Some seem to think that having a dominant scrum shouldn’t be the be-all-and-end-all in rugby. That you should still be able to have a magnificent backline, for instance, and still be able to compete at test level.
But that isn’t how test rugby works, it never has and nor should it. It should be the other way around if anything– the way the Boks do it. If you don’t have a scrum and a lineout, then your backs simply don’t matter – this isn’t sevens ffs.
Is Rassie’s bench use wrong?
Rassie Erasmus unloads the “Bomb Squad”. (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)
The other area of the game in which some want to depower the Boks is on the bench. Rassie’s Boks have revolutionised the bench in a manner that shouldn’t be underestimated.
The bench used to be the afterthought of rugby, now it is largely what we all focus on. The bench has gone from being the desert, to the main course and the rugby world now appreciates that it is the quality of the bench that dictates the result, not merely the starting XV.
Read more: What is the “Bomb Squad?”
Rassie has also made bench splits become recognised formats of numbers. A decade ago, 7:1 and 6:2 splits sounded like a coaching term from cycling or athletics – now those words have become part of the rugby’s every day dictionary.
Many Bok supporters and media see this attack on their strengths as an insult, but it’s the opposite – it’s the highest sporting compliment. Only the best requires law and rule changes to stop them from dominating.
The NBA is a great example. Michael Jordan, Shaquielle O’Neil and Charles Barkley all had laws/ rules which were designed to especially squash their strengths.
Will this only make the Boks better?
The Springboks want to win three consecutive World Cups (Getty Images)
But above all, how much do you think that any of these proposed ‘depowering’ laws would weaken the Boks? This autumn, the Bok squad has seen more yellow and red than a graphic designer at McDonalds – yet they still won.
The current Bok squad is able to beat most with their second team, let alone their first. To minimise the impact of the Boks you’d have to attack the depth of their player pool, not simply adjust laws.
Related: Who will the Springboks face in the 2027 Rugby World Cup?
And if you want to adjust the depth of their player pool, then you’re entering the realms of John Wilkes Booth.
Instead of rugby trying to reduce the Boks to everyone else’s level, maybe everyone else in the game should be trying to elevate their own level of play.
And let’s not forget, for all the talk of the Boks’ size and power, they also reintroduced the ‘small’ wing in Cheslin Kolbe and Kurt-Lee Arendse. The Boks are maybe the greatest team that we’ve ever seen in test rugby, and it’s awesome to witness.
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