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Cape Town - Former Springbok prop Rob Kempson feels SA Rugby’s policy regarding picking foreign-based players for the national team should be scrapped.
The rule states that only overseas-based Springboks with 30 or more Test caps can be called up to the national team, with the exception being a Rugby World Cup year.
Kempson, who played 37 Tests for the Springboks between 1998 and 2003, spoke exclusively to Sport24 this week and when probed on the matter, he responded:
“The 30-cap rule makes a mockery of the system to be honest with you. If you were going to make a statement in terms of what SA Rugby were trying to achieve with it - 30-caps was not enough - it should rather have been 50 caps.
“I would be in favour of rather doing away with it and giving whoever is coaching the Springboks, which at the moment is Rassie (Erasmus), the best available crack at doing the job.”
Kempson added that he felt the player base in South African rugby was “completely diluted”.
“We have too many professional players - and if we were to maximise the talent we have in South Africa with regards to all the franchises and get the appropriate coaching in from the junior levels up, I don’t think we would have the massive problems that we find ourselves in right now.
“I don’t believe you are going to prevent players from heading abroad by saying you haven’t played 30 Tests for the Springboks, and fully maintain SA Rugby should actually not have instituted the rule in the first place.”
