Curry makes Erasmus nervous of new faces

The impact of Tom Curry during the summer Test series has caused Rassie Erasmus, the South Africa head coach, to be wary of the presence of several unfamiliar faces within the England squad.

Erasmus admits that he knew little about Curry before the start of the summer other than that he was a twin and a pretty handy jackaler. By the end of the Springboks’ 2-1 series win, Erasmus was certainly aware of the Sale open side.

More than any other England player, Curry earned the Springboks’ respect for going head to head with captain Siya Kolisi, coming away with man-of-the-match honours in the third Test, which the tourists won 25-10.

And so Erasmus believes England’s lack of experience in the back row (10 caps) and at prop (four Test starts) can work to their benefit. “The moment you underestimate those new names, they tend to bite you,” Erasmus said. “Curry we didn’t know that well, we knew he was good over the ball, knew he had a twin brother – but that’s about all we knew about him.

“And then he really got stuck in there at Newlands [for the third Test], he was one of the big reasons why we lost that Test match. So that’s why I’m really very nervous of faces I don’t know. I think maybe not knowing them so well from our side might be to their advantage.”

Erasmus was careful throughout his press conference not to provide counterpart Eddie Jones with any added ammunition, not least because of memories of the victory he masterminded as Japan coach over South Africa at the World Cup. Even the notion that the Springboks are giants was downplayed, in spite of the presence of a pair of 6ft 9in second rows on their bench.

“People say the South Africans are so big, but I think it’s a bit of a myth, because all rugby players are big nowadays,” Erasmus added.