Latest cryptic Erasmus tweet hints at most daring bench experiment yet

It is fair to say that South Africa director of rugby Rassie Erasmus is enjoying the hysteria surrounding his and Jacques Nienaber's bench selections, and he has had some fun with it.

South Africa have played around with their bench set-up so far this World Cup, deploying their usual 6-2 split against Scotland and Tonga, a traditional 5-3 split against Romania, and the talk of the town 7-1 split against Ireland. Even then, the 5-3 split had two scrum-halves in it.

Ahead of the world champions' quarter-final against France on Sunday at the Stade de France, Erasmus threw a post out on X that is dripping in mystery and is bound to add fuel to the already raging bench-debate fire.

The 2019 World Cup winning coach posted: "8+0. 7+1. 6+2. 5+3 = 8.

4+4 🤔"

Erasmus has already jokingly mentioned the potential of an 8-0 split on the bench in the past, but this is the first time he has mentioned a 4-4 split on the bench. In reality, the 7-1, 6-2, and 5-3 splits are the only options that will be used against the World Cup hosts, but there has been plenty of buzz around his post, with 1,000 likes and 100s of reposts.

Erasmus spoke this week how the Springboks' clean bill of health has offered them the luxury of choosing how to shape their bench, rather being dictated to by the players who are available.

"I think it would be a difficult situation if we only had two nines and one is injured," he said. "We don't have any injuries currently, everyone is fit. We can pick from Lukhanyo right through to Vincent Koch, everyone is available. We are very fortunate and that is why we haven't quite decided seven-one, six-two [forwards to backs ratio on the bench]. It's tough to announce the team.