Coach shares the blame for Elton failure

Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus took some of the blame for flyhalf Elton Jantjies’s poor performance in the third test against England at Newlands on Saturday.

The visitors won the match 25-10 to salvage some pride after going 2-0 down in the series in Bloemfontein a week earlier.

With the series secure, Erasmus made five changes to the team‚ including bringing Jantjies back into the starting lineup even though the forecast was for wet‚ slippery conditions.

Jantjies‚ who was playing his 26th test‚ has seldom looked like a world-class pivot at this level and in the treacherous conditions on Saturday‚ he struggled badly.

He dropped two high balls under little pressure‚ had a clearance kick charged down and missed a relatively straightforward penalty in addition to failing to shape the game in any positive way.

As the pressure grew‚ his game crumbled and he was substituted on the hour mark.

“I don’t like taking my flyhalf off as long as he is making decisions‚” Erasmus said.

“As long as he is making decisions you can judge if they are good or bad and then you can analyse them afterwards.

“But 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.

“The pack weren’t really dominating like they had in the previous games and he had young backs outside him.

“Overall, I thought the pressure was really on Elton and so I subbed him‚ believing I could relieve the pressure on him and still win the test match.

“It as definitely not just an Elton problem because overall our pack didn’t dominate.

“In the first two tests Handre Pollard almost had an armchair ride and in this game Elton was under a lot more pressure.” – TimesLIVE