Rassie refuses to put all the blame on Elton
THE SPRINGBOKS didn’t just learn more about Elton Jantjies in their 25-10 defeat against England on Saturday, they also learned about playing in wet weather and game management, according to Bok coach Rassie Erasmus.
On a wet evening in Cape Town, what could be the last Test match at Newlands was ruined by wet conditions that made sure that the game wouldn’t go down as a classic.
Both teams struggled to get going and the Boks, especially, made a number of errors that prevented them from making it a series whitewash. And while Erasmus said that they would take a few learnings out of the game, he would much rather have preferred learning from a win.
“We were terrible today, in my opinion,” Erasmus said after the game.
“It is nicer to learn out of winning… it’s not nice learning when you’re losing.
“In the first half we were good, but we gave away too many penalties. In the second half, they just built the pressure and we couldn’t get out of our own half.”
While he was quick to admit the Boks just weren’t good enough on the day, Erasmus seemed confident that they can do some fixing ahead of the more testing matches, which will come in the Rugby Championship.
“If we’d lost the first game and won the last two it would be better – it’ll be six weeks until we play again,” he said.
“But it’s bad to lose and we spoke about it and we will be ready for the Rugby Championship.
“We must now learn from this and do a review.”
The Boks’ tactical kicking and decision-making was also disappointing at Newlands, and while the team, as a collective, obviously didn’t perform well, no one will be more disappointed in his performance than Elton Jantjies.
Whether Jantjies is a player for the international stage or just a Super Rugby star is a debate that has never failed to make rugby’s hot-topic list. But if there was ever a performance by the flyhalf that strongly suggested that he perhaps just isn’t up to it, it’s the shocker he had at Newlands.
In that game, Jantjies missed a relatively straightforward penalty kick early on, dropped two high balls under little pressure, had a kick charged down and just failed to run the show in general.
Erasmus – who hinted that young flyhalf Damian Willemse could come into the mix for the Rugby Championship as the Bok coach wants to build depth – refused to put all the blame on Jantjies and explained that the changes he made for the wet Test – four in the backline – in order to experiment might have played a part in Jantjies’ struggles.
“In this game‚ and Elton will tell you this himself because he is a grown man‚ the pressure was piling up on him as the charge down showed,” Erasmus said.
“The pack wasn’t really dominating like they had in the previous games. There was a young inside centre and a new outside centre‚ coupled with difficult weather conditions and he was put in a position to sink or swim.
“It as definitely not just an Elton problem because overall our pack didn’t dominate the match. In the first two Tests Handre Pollard almost had an arm-chair ride and in this game Elton was under a lot more pressure.
“People on the outside might be thinking this is last chance saloon for Elton, but we might be thinking more long-term. We didn’t just learn about Elton today‚ we learned about playing in wet weather and managing the game.
“He is a strong character and he has a few Super Rugby games now to get his confidence back.”
Someone who was much more positive following the game was England coach Eddie Jones. While relief must have been all round in the England change-room at Newlands as they broke their five-Test losing streak, Jones praised Erasmus’ contributions to the Boks.
“Rassie has done a good job of getting some wins for the side early,” said Jones.
“The big difference between the Springboks now and the Springboks six months ago is that they work harder off the ball.”