Rassie Erasmus, the head coach of the Springboks, responded when World Rugby addressed the contentious Bomb Squad after they were criticized during some stages of the match.
Some parts of the sport, especially in Ireland, have criticized South Africa for initiating the shift to forward-heavy benches.
In order to win the Rugby World Cup in 2019, Erasmus’ team mostly used a lineup of six forwards and two backs. Four years later, they occasionally switched to a 7-1.
Since then, France has successfully used that strategy to win the Six Nations, defeating Italy, Ireland, and Scotland handily to win the championship.
They employed the 7-1 bench in each of those three games, and in spite of the evident risk involved, it paid off as they won their first championship since 2022 and just their second in 15 years.
Bomb Squad concerns
According to study conducted by the worldwide governing body, there have been worries that taking this route could increase injuries and make the game riskier, but this is untrue.
We examined it from a medical and scientific standpoint. Alan Gilpin, the chief executive of World Rugby, told the Guardian, “There was a unique opinion that a group of new players entering the game with 20 to 30 minutes remaining would create a more harmful position, but the science said that’s not the case.”
Springboks head coach Rassie Erasmus and members of the Bomb Squad.
“So there was no reason from that perspective to look at how we might do replacements differently. Ultimately, there are a lot of different ways to win a rugby match.
Erasmus thus expressed his happiness that World Rugby is not considering altering the bench laws on X, formerly Twitter.
“So Lekka,” was the Springboks head coach’s response before he added South Africa and France flag emojis
Given the increased scrutiny the “Bomb Squad” has received over the previous two years, the Boks manager will be hoping the governing body maintains its position.
Australian analyst Matt Williams, who is based in Ireland, has been enthusiastic supporting the 2023 World Cup, while Ireland great Keith Wood was a critic of it.
Gregor Townsend, the manager of Scotland, has voiced concerns despite occasionally using forward-heavy benches during the last Six Nations.
After losing two backs in a single incident in the first half due to a head-on collision between Finn Russell and Darcy Graham, they were forced to rearrange their backline, which hurt them in the encounter against Ireland.
The Scots would ultimately lose to Simon Easterby’s team 32–18, which prompted Williams to launch his most recent tirade on the bench tactics.
“World Rugby says: ‘You have got to have front-rowers’ and I just can’t believe that World Rugby hasn’t stepped in on this particular point since South Africa went 7-1 and everyone’s going 6-2 and Ireland’s stayed with 5-3,” he told Virgin Media Sport in February.
“That game was over at that point [when Russell went off].”
He added: “This problem is so easily solved. We’ve been talking about it for a couple of years now and all they have to say is you got to have three recognised trained backs on your bench – it can’t be a forward who can play in the backs – just have three backs on the bench.
“We do it with the front-row and if they did it with the backs, this conversation would be over – it’s such a simple solve.
“Until we get to that point where World Rugby starts saying: ‘You do have to have three suitably trained backs as part of your eight’, this option that we saw on Saturday is going to be a constant in the game and that’s a shame because it’s easily solved.”
Williams’ worries have been dismissed by World Rugby, though, and teams are free to keep utilizing the “Bomb Squad” with approval from the governing body.
