The Springbok coach, Rassie Erasmus, has lauded his chargers after winning the Rugby Championship on Saturday in Nelspruit.
On Saturday the Springboks hammered Argentina 48-7 at the Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit to win the Southern Hemisphere’s premier rugby tournament for the first time since 2019.
‘Erasmus backed the backline marshall’
Argentina had a chance of winning the title for the first time, however, the back-to-back World Champions were dominant in all aspects of the game. Even if the Los Pumas didn’t receive yellow and red cards this would have had no impact on the game’s outcome.
While the flyhalf Manie Libbok has been heavily criticised over the past year for his kicking ability off the tee, Erasmus, backed the backline marshall, albeit he was relieved of his kicking duties. Even more so as he missed a penalty which would have handed the Boks a win against the Pumas in Argentina a week ago. Without the pressure of kicking, the pivot was allowed to play his natural game, and he was brilliant.
Jesse Kriel. Photo: SA Rugby
Erasmus said they had to get a lot of things right during the past week in the build-up to the Test and he praised his team for the character shown while there was pressure on them to perform and win.
“The pressure has been on the players to gel quickly, and I must give credit to the coaching staff and all the backroom team and the guys for keeping on believing despite all the changes,” he said.
Older and calmer heads
“We’ve used 49 players this year and 35 in the Rugby Championship. But when you get to these crunch games it’s the older and the calmer heads that sometimes pull it through and they help pull through a guy like Manie.
“They understand the bigger picture and then things like this happen where all of us are privileged to sit with Eben today.
“It was a gutsy performance and there was enough effort, and I do think there were brilliant play at stages. So, it was a much better performance, it wasn’t perfect but there was some really good stuff that we can build on.
“We showed good intent; Argentina are a very physical side, a nippy, great attacking side – Jerry Flannery was very nervous during the week so to keep them to one score was great.
‘The end-of-year tour is now our target’
“It was a much better performance than in Argentina, but it was a good performance and something to build on.
“Overall, I’m very happy, happy for Manie, happy for South Africa. But the end-of-year tour is now our target and going through that undefeated.”
The Springboks’ next match is on 10 November when they face Scotland at Murrayfield in Edinburgh in the opening Test of the End-of-year Tour.
OFM Sport/Morgan Piek cg
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