Rassie and Siya on Boks win
NEW Springbok boss Rassie Erasmus has said he will continue to back the youngsters against England - whether they have the experience or not.
And, he said after his team had beaten England 42-39 in the first Test at Ellis Park on Saturday that he’s happy to take a few chances going forward if it helps the Boks become a better team.
“There are going to be challenges in the next few months, and we’re going to have to make brave calls,” said Erasmus about his picking of a number of young, inexperienced players.
On Saturday at Ellis Park, Erasmus picked three debutants – wings Aphiwe Dyantyi and S’bu Nkosi and lock RG Snyman - outside centre Lukhanyo Am had one cap, while Faf de Klerk, Jean-Luc du Preez, Franco Mostert, Wilco Louw and Bongi Mbonambi of the starting team had less than 20 caps. Several players on the bench were also new to the Test arena, having only played a handful of games.
“We will lose some matches, but we have to get guys capped at Test level ... put them under pressure. They must experience what Test pressure is like ... our wings, Thomas du Toit, Wilco Louw, Akker (van der Merwe); we must put these guys in these situations.
“We took a chance on Faf, but what be brought was awesome; the same with Willie. The youngsters will learn. We must keep on being brave. Even if we lost this game, I’d pick the guys again ... we can’t go to the World Cup with 14 or 15 guys who we trust; we want a squad of 31 who we can trust.”
Erasmus was referring here to two of his overseas-based players, Faf de Klerk and Willie le Roux, who were picked for the series having last played for the Boks in the 2016 season. But they, and fellow Europe-based man Duane Vermeulen did everything and more of what was asked of them at the weekend.
The Boks boss has made it clear he is prepared to risk a few results to help build the team into a formidable side, having less than 20 Tests left before next year’s World Cup in Japan. One of the areas where he may mix things up this weekend in the second Test in Bloemfontein is at loose-forward where the Boks seem to be in need of a specialist fetcher.
The problem is South Africa’s two leading ball-poachers this season – the Bulls duo of Roelof Smit and Marco van Staden – picked up injuries on the eve of the squad announcement two weeks ago and are unavailable this series. However, Erasmus could again go with the same starting team, having released specialist openside Kwagga Smith from the group on Sunday.
The Lions man, Ox Nche, Jason Jenkins, Nizaam Carr, Travis Ismaiel, Cameron Wright and Curwin Bosch have been released to their franchises.
Furthermore, prop Trevor Nyakane, who missed the first Test after picking up a rib injury last week, has been withdrawn from the squad.
Meanwhile, Erasmus confirmed Le Roux and De Klerk suffered from cramp on Saturday night, while there will be some concern around flyhalf Handre Pollard, who hurt his shoulder during Saturday’s match. More information on the severity of the injury will be known on Monday, but Erasmus didn’t seem too worried about his first choice flyhalf after Saturday’s Test. The other No 10s in the group are Elton Jantjies and Rob du Preez.
Erasmus said he was happy with certain aspects of his team’s performance – especially the efforts put in by the youngsters – but that the defence and breakdown needed plenty of attention. The Boks leaked three soft tries early on to be on the back foot.
“We didn’t get enough width out wide ... but we had two young wings and an outside centre (Lukyanho Am) who are new at this level. Of course they were also nervous in the first few minutes ... and England exploited us out wide with pin-point passing and kicking,” explained Erasmus. “Once we got width it went well (in defence).
“But the defence is something we must work on. The guys must also get used to it, and each other. At Test level it’s a high speed game; it’s not Super Rugby. But, at the same time we must keep up our attack.”
From an attacking perspective, the Boks did well at times, with the backs playing with speed and width, something that pleased Erasmus. “The attack was good for a team that is more renowned for kicking the ball back,” he said. “I’m glad we attacked with freedom. We made a lot of errors, too, but we’re getting there.”
“Being 24-3 down, things could have gone badly wrong. But credit to Siya and the senior guys ... they calmed things down and turned the game around.”