Two months. That is how long ago Vusi Moyo played his first proper senior club game, and on Saturday the 18th of July he was standing in the tunnel in Durban about to run out at flyhalf for the world champions with 43 unanswered points about to leave his boots and Wales about to leave their dignity somewhere near the halfway line. Four debutants got the nod that day and the 20-year-old got the biggest chair of the lot — the number 10, the steering wheel, the seat every South African uncle believes he could fill after two brandies and a Coke. Moyo climbed in, adjusted the mirrors, and drove the Boks to a 43-0 shutout like a kid who'd stolen the keys and turned out to be a better driver than his dad.
First Black Springbok to START at flyhalf — say it slowly, say it proudly
Now pause the highlight reel and read that sentence back, because it matters more than any scoreline: the first Black Springbok to START a Test at flyhalf. In a country that spent decades arguing about who was allowed to hold which jersey, a 20-year-old just walked into the most scrutinised position on the field, wearing the number that has broken grown men, and made it look like a Sunday touch game in the park. That is not a stat, that's a doorway swinging open, and there are a whole lot of little boys in Umlazi and Soweto and Gugulethu who just watched somebody who looks like them wear the 10 and win 43-0. History doesn't always arrive with fireworks. Sometimes it arrives calm, confident and left-footed.
And now the cavalry comes home and has to take a number
Here's the delicious twist. The moment the kid nails the audition, the returning heavyweights come strolling back into the building. Handré Pollard — the man whose boot has literally won a World Cup final — is jogging back from a hamstring niggle. Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, the golden child of two seasons ago, is patched up and ready. Manie Libbok is lurking with that circus left foot. On any other week these three walk into the 10 jersey unopposed. This week they walk in, look at the depth chart, and realise there's a 20-year-old sitting in their chair with his feet up, having just posted a clean sheet. Take a number, legends. The queue starts behind the whiz-kid.
Rassie says 'well stocked' — the most terrifying two words in world rugby
And Rassie? Rassie is doing the thing Rassie does, where he stands at the podium looking like a man who's already read the last page of everyone else's book. He called his flyhalf riches “well stocked,” which from any other coach means 'we have options' but from Erasmus means 'I have assembled a problem so beautiful that it will keep my rivals awake in three time zones.' A World Cup winner, a returning starlet, a magician and a history-making 20-year-old, all fighting for one shirt. Most nations would kill for one Test-ready 10. The Boks have four, and the youngest just set the bar at 43-0.
So when the Boks touch down in Buenos Aires on 8 August, keep one eye on that number 10 saga, because it is the sweetest selection headache on the planet. Whatever Rassie decides, remember where this started: a Sharks kid, two months into senior rugby, walking into the flyhalf jersey nobody thought he'd get to keep and putting up a score nobody could argue with. Hands off the 10, gentlemen. It might be spoken for. And the whole country — the whole beautiful, loud, rainbow lot of us — will be watching to see if the boy who made history gets to keep making it.