Players that need to Retire or be phased out during 2024-25

Having the older players around to pass over the mantle is fine, as long as done in the first 1-2 years after a world cup so that new players are peaking for the next world cup. Anyone 32 and older should be rotated because most of them will not be test standard in 3.5 years. 

However, a few should already have been discarded as surplus to future requirements.

Players that need to be phased over the next 1- 2 seasons are crossed out. Those that should removed with immediate effect are bolded.

Forwards: 
Phepsi Buthelezi, Ben-Jason Dixon, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Thomas du Toit, Eben Etzebeth, Johan Grobbelaar, Vincent Koch, Siya Kolisi, Frans Malherbe, Malcolm Marx, Bongi Mbonambi, Salmaan Moerat, Franco Mostert, Ox Nche, Trevor Nyakane, Evan Roos, Kwagga Smith, RG Snyman, Gerhard Steenekamp, Marco van Staden, Jan-Hendrik Wessels, Jasper Wiese.

Backs: 
Lukhanyo Am, Kurt-Lee Arendse, Damian de Allende, Faf de Klerk, Andre Esterhuizen, Aphelele Fassi, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Cheslin Kolbe, Jesse Kriel, Willie le Roux, Manie Libbok, Makazole Mapimpi, Handre Pollard, Cobus Reinach, Morne van den Berg, Edwill van der Merwe, Grant Williams.

You should add non-performers like Esterhuiizen to your list of retirees.   However, we have such a big pool of youner players knocking on the door - while Pollard is older than other players on r list which is also on your list.   

Aging is a very importnt is due when it comes to performance before saying which players should retire and which not.  The problem is that some players showed signs of deteriorating performances over a period and their age made a recovery of form impossible.   Players get injured and took longer to revover from injuries due to injuries,

Some players remain top performers longer than others of a similar age.   It is for the coaches to determine when players s should be faced out based on PERFORMANCE - with due re gard to injuries and downward trend in performances that determine wh en players should be phased out,   

Some coaches are worse of in determining what role ag play in the case of older players than others.    All coaches made mistakes in selection - like Erasmus did in the  case of Fourie - while a serial offenders in that regard were Meyer and Coetzee.   Meyer with his insistence on convimcing plasyers who retired in 2011 was a seerious flop.   Not that Meyer knew nothin g about player performaces anyway.   That is why the selection of the Springbok squad for the 2015 WC was doomed from day 1,     R=That was why i that squad there were 8 nplayable players out of the 31 selected players - which resulted that the 23 playes available to play were dead on their feet by the time the play-off started.

For your info there are 31 players in the WC  squads.   The idea is that the team players should be rested against weaker teams.   The unplayable issue was iportant in the  final stages of the tournament.    However, after the Japan dsaster Meyer could not take a chance n team selection - so the players that should have been rested against minor teams were fored to play in every test during the tournaments.   The actual result was that all the players were dead on their feet when the Sring bok as virtually dead on their feet during te quarterfinal and semi-final.   It showed in th e match against Wales where the Welsh were leading until Du Preez scored a try near to te end of the match and i the AB test i bcame a real disaster when Matfield came on to replace De Jager in the semi when Matfield contribited zero to the team with a major contribution by Matfield to the imevitable loss.

Be it as it may Erasmus made one mistake iro of the 2023 WC squad (Fourie) - Meyer failed in that case selecting 8 players who effectively was unplayable or at abn age stage where they becomaame under-performers or who played no matches for up to 14 months before the WC.

What I am driving at is that age can effect performances negatively - but that Performance is t he final indcator who sh ould go and who should stay.  Take for instance Esterhuizen - he was given 18 opportunities to solidify his selection as a player - but he under-performed in the matches he played in and his age will not improve performances anyway.   So individual performances should determine when players are to be phased out and wen aging could have a further negative effect on player performances.

Some players are injury prone and in that category falls players like Pollar and Snyman.    Would they last until 2027 is another open question.   For instace Mozart was attacking when Erasmus did not select Pollard for the 2023 WC squad - but if he could not lay or get injured in the WC matces he could not be replaced.    It was a terible situation when he was forced to leave out Pollard because of the fact at the time of submission of the WC squad he was injured and when the actual WC started and he could not play he could  not be replaced.   

Wha I a driving it is that age coul influence performances - but that in the end performance is the norm and not encesssarily aging without regard to the final issue of PERFORMANCE is in fact the right way to go.      By the ay your heading  must surely be wrong - it should not eb 2024 and 2025 - it sould be 2025 and 2026.   Based on the fact that players you listed ae till good erfprmers at present make phasin out in 2024 a farce.   So  heading change should be 2025 and 2026.

Some coaches are                       

Mostert will likely be around until he's 40. Another 8 sweet years of the Sous!!!

Good times!

He may be around - but his performance was always and is way below par expected frm a lock forward.  .      

hier sit die manne

Out with the old and lets groom the young players now not later.

Agree.

Actually, I've changed my mind.

I think Sous can play until he's 50.

I see no great young locks in South Africa….they  look adequate, but no better than their international opponents. Our dominance in the lock position seems to be coming to a, hopefully temporary, end.

I have changed your lsit based on actual performances on test level:-

Forwards: 
Phepsi Buthelezi, Ben-Jason Dixon, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Thomas du Toit, Eben Etzebeth, Johan Grobbelaar, Vincent Koch, Siya Kolisi, Frans Malherbe, Malcolm Marx, Bongi Mbonambi, Salmaan Moerat, Franco Mostert, Ox Nche, Trevor Nyakane, Evan Roos, Kwagga Smith, RG Snyman, Gerhard Steenekamp, Marco van Staden, Jan-Hendrik Wessels, Jasper Wiese.

Backs: 
Lukhanyo Am, Kurt-Lee Arendse, Damian de Allende, Faf de Klerk, Andre Esterhuizen, Aphelele Fassi, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Cheslin Kolbe, Jesse Kriel, Willie le Roux, Manie Libbok, Makazole Mapimpi, Handre Pollard, Cobus Reinach, Morne van den Berg, Edwill van der Merwe, Grant Williams. and Willemse.

I deleted players based on present and past perfomances.   However we have a problem.   Erasmus and the coaches have a very sophisticated performance evaluation programe that studies the actions of all the parties in games and thet program determies what actual contributions by individual playerrs amount to  - that may cause changing some players    I wqqs for instance not imprseed by Kwagga in the Wales test he actually delivered very little to the team effort and seemed ineffective,   However - that wa my impression - but I do not claim that it was what the coaches think of the detailed performance of players they have at their disposal.   

In any event players are being phased out and the reasons are not clear at all to us amateurs -   It is always diffult to understand decision of the coaching staff and out of decency they do not reveal to us in the media .  .