Erasmus: “Not proud of performance but happy with effort”

By Ayanda Nyuswa

Following South Africa’s 32-15 win over Scotland in the opening match of the November tour, Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus says he was not happy with the the performance but proud of the effort the boys put in. South Africa scored four tries in the match, with a first half brace from Makazole Mapimpi and solitary strikes from Thomas du Toit (First international try) and Jasper Wiese, to come away victorious at Murrayfield.

The win has seen the Springboks return to the summit of World Rugby Rankings, ahead of New Zealand who beat Ireland 23-13 last Friday, with the Irish dropping down to third position.

The team showed a lot of rust after Rassie Erasmus made 11 changes to the side that beat Argentina in Nelspruit to win the Rugby Championship in June. The mistakes were aplenty with 13 handling errors in total, but the Bok superiority showed in the scrum and overall defensive play as they prevailed on the night to record a 9th consecutive victory.

“I was nervous the whole week with making 11 changes to the side, I said to the players you just expect them to immediately gel but it won’t always happen that like that. That’s certainly something we are trying to get into the team no matter who we play with, that our systems and communications are up to scratch, always,” said Erasmus.

“If we get injuries three injuries in a position, Canaan Moddie just slots in at 13, if Damien gets injured then Andre (Esterhuizen) just starts. Andre didn’t play badly but he wasn’t immediately in sync with him and Handre (Pollard). We just want the team to gel together, we have been together for a while now and as we bring the youngsters in, next week will probaby be Damien (De Allende) and Jessie (Kriel) again, and we wanna know if those guys go down, if Eben goes down, Jean Kleyn, Ruan (Nortje) or RG (Snyman), those guys can slot in seamlessly. That’s not an effort thing, it is just more repeating and aligning, because the effort I am proud of. We are all proud of the effort, 17 points vs them away from home, it is not too shabby.”

Picture: AFP