Rassie joy at taking scalp

SOUTH AFRICA coach Rassie Erasmus said he can now plan for next year’s World Cup after defending ‘for what felt like hours’ in a 36-34 victory in New Zealand yesterday.

The Springboks made 235 tackles to the All Blacks’ 61 and they scored five tries to set up a win on a day when All Blacks out-half Beauden Barrett missed four of six shots at goal.

‘When we started planning we thought there’s one way to come back: it’s to beat New Zealand in New Zealand,’ Erasmus said, referring to South Africa’s run of seven wins on 13 tests that cost Allister Coetzee his job.

‘Then we lost those two games in a row and you lose some belief but we always targeted this game to say “we can turn things (around) and be real contenders at the World Cup”.

‘We could have lost this game at the last minute, it could have gone totally against us. We were a bit lucky but very relieved. No one beats them here, so we’re very privileged to be one of those teams.’