Rassie: Boks are in with a shout
BOK COACH: WE HAVE A CHANCE LIKE EVERYONE ELSE
South Africa’s next opponents will be decided at weekend.
South Africa have as good a chance as any team of progressing beyond next week’s Rugby World Cup quarterfinals, Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus believes.
While the Boks booked their place in the play-offs with their 66-7 victory over a hopelessly outgunned Canada on Tuesday, they are awaiting the outcomes of this weekend’s last pool matches to determine their opposition in the last-eight.
“We are facing some stiff opposition, but I guess we have a chance like everyone else,” Erasmus said.
“There are so many good teams in this tournament but we are in with a shout.”
While Japan shocked Ireland with a 19-12 victory earlier in the tournament, the Irish earned a resounding 27-3 win over Scotland to keep themselves in the hunt in Pool A, and Erasmus believed any of those three teams would be formidable quarterfinal opponents.
“We already played Japan a few weeks back and they are really a class act, while Ireland are a class act and Scotland are a class act, so we have some tough opposition in the next couple of weeks.”
Having got the monkey off their backs by making it safely through the opening round, South Africa are set to make their seventh straight appearance in the playoffs since their debut at the 1995 showpiece.
They have scored 27 tries in their four pool matches in Japan, with one against New Zealand, nine against Namibia, seven against Italy and 10 against Canada.
They have also conceded only three tries, with two against New Zealand and one against Canada.
While he was relieved with their latest result, however, Erasmus felt there was a danger of creating too much hype around their big win over Canada.
“It was a short turnaround and a lot of the guys hadn’t played for a while, so it was scrappy at stages,” he said.
While the persistent humidity was expected to fall ahead of the play-offs, Erasmus believes it remains important for the Boks to enjoy a good start before the ball became too slippery.
“In these humid conditions you sometimes over-exaggerate your play,” he said.
Kobe – Victory over Namibia would mark a successful World Cup for Canada, although giving rugby a “shop window” outweighs the results, coach Kingsley Jones said this week after losing 66-7 to South Africa in Kobe.
Although the unsurprising loss came just six days after the Canadians were humbled 63-0 by world champions New Zealand, Jones says if the game is to grow in Canada, they need to be playing at this level, whatever the outcome.
“The biggest thing for rugby in Canada is to be in the shop window,” Jones told reporters in Kobe. “We have a big audience and the support tonight was incredible.”