‘If you don’t change you get left behind’ — Rassie Erasmus on evolving Boks

The Springboks are constantly evolving and if they don’t want to be left behind they need to continue to do so, according to coach Rassie Erasmus, as they prepare to officially open their international season against Italy at Loftus this weekend.

The Boks got up and running with a non-Test against famed invitational side, the Barbarians, in Cape Town over the past weekend, and now play their first official Test of the season, in the opening game of their incoming series.

The big win over the BaaBaas showed the Boks’ impressive attacking threat, even in miserable and wet conditions, as they ran in eight tries and only conceded one, for a 54-7 result, and Erasmus said they want to build on that against the Italians.

“If you don’t change, you get left behind. We started evolving when attack coach Tony Brown came in last year. You could see the intent last week, and if it wasn’t so wet, more of the offloads would have stuck,” said Erasmus earlier this week.

“This group of senior guys who are playing this weekend want to continue with that. This team will definitely not slot back to 2019 when it was a kick-and-chase, pressure game for us. This team on Saturday must try and get it right.”

Experienced team

The team named to face Italy is chock full of experience and features a large number of double World Cup winners, which brought up questions about whether the Boks were going for a bit more of a conservative game, but Erasmus explained that even the older guys have been evolving with the new blood.

“As new blood comes in, we change. In 2019, Swys de Bruin (attack coach) withdrew a month before the World Cup and we met (replacement) Felix Jones in Japan. That is how much time we had to prepare on the attacking front,” said Erasmus.

“Then, post-2019, the Covid pandemic took two years of development away from us, and we had no preparation for the Lions series.

“Still, with the (limited) time we had going into the last World Cup, we played some good attacking rugby. None of these guys we’re still picking are not coachable enough to evolve with us.”

If the Boks get what they want out of the first Italian game, it is likely they will make a slew of changes for the second Test in Gqeberha, as they look to spread game time and give other players a run, with Erasmus saying that the players already know who is likely to play.

That means a number of fringe players could get a chance, as well as a few debutants, while it will also be a chance for some stalwarts to come back from injury, with regular captain Siya Kolisi expected to play, along with Pieter-Steph du Toit, Grant Williams and Makazole Mapimpi.