Fans give Rassie the thumbs up

It was almost unreal how little flak Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus took after last weekend’s loss to England at Newlands. In the past any Bok coach would have come under immediate fire should the Boks dare to lose a game and the knives would be out almost immediately.

But it’s obviously a “yes nod” in general from the normally unforgiving South African rugby public that Erasmus is steering the team in the proper direction.

After all, he had already wrapped up the series after the second Test, although neither win, of 42-39 at Ellis Park and 2312 in Bloemfontein, were walkovers.

In both cases they had to fight back from deficits of 24-3 and 12-0 to take command of the game and pull it through, a sign of the new-found fighting spirit in the side.

But where were they in the third Test? Did the toughness of the series catch up with them or was it simply a case of the hunger evaporating after the series had been won?

And he did experiment in the third Test that the Boks lost 2510. But again it was a wet-weather performance that has left a lot of desire back on the field and plenty of unanswered questions ahead of the Rugby Championship.

While flyhalf Elton Jantjies came under a lot of criticism, it was actually the Bok pack that didn’t come through for the nation on the day as they were exposed, especially in contact and at the breakdown.

I, for one, saw Jantjies produce a brilliant performance in very wet weather for the Lions against the Blues two seasons ago on course to a runaway win.

Why? His pack dominated. Not a single No 10 on this planet can dominate if he has to do his magic on the backfoot with a pack in reverse.

Erasmus’ real test will come in the Championship.

It must be remembered that the last two years our prospects also appeared bright after a positive start in the June Test matches.

In 2016 the Boks beat the highly rated Irish 2-1 after losing the opener at Newlands while last year the French were whitewashed 3-0. But come the Championship the wheels came off badly.

Fortunately for Erasmus, the return of Eben Etzebeth, Malcolm Marx and Warren Whiteley will strengthen the side, although the loss of Duane Vermeulen is huge.