Rassie after Boks’ win against Ireland: ‘We had to get monkey off our backs’

Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus claimed that revenge had never entered his team’s mind, and that they were just happy to get the monkey off their backs, after a battling win over Ireland in Dublin on Saturday night.

Since Erasmus took charge of the Boks in 2018, his side had only won one game against the Irish while losing three, including in Durban last year during a drawn two-game home series.

They had also not won in Ireland since 2012, and had fallen to a tight defeat at the Aviva Stadium on their end-of-year-tour in 2022.

Strong rivalry

A really strong rivalry had thus built up between the two teams over the past few years, which added to the occasion on Saturday, and with this being the one country that Erasmus and the current crop of Boks had not won in, they were desperate to achieve that goal.

In the end they did it with a comfortable looking scoreline of 24-13, but it was anything but, after they dominated proceedings, but were repelled by some incredible Irish defence, which took the game right down to the wire, with the Boks under immense pressure in the dying moments.

“Ireland were just as physical to keep us out with the tackles and turnovers they made inside the 22m area, so it was physical, but I don’t think they came off second best there,” said Erasmus after the match.

“If they scored in the last four minutes, then it would have been a restart and the game would have been on. It was definitely not a perfect performance, but there was a monkey on our backs that we had to get off.

“It also wasn’t about revenge, as people have been asking all week … it was a case of trying to fix things (from their previous defeats against them).”

Cards

A slew of cards were handed out over the match as well, which made it a very frustrating stop-start affair, but you couldn’t really fault the performance of ref Matthew Carley, with all the cards pretty straight forward.

Ireland received five of them, with lock James Ryan lucky not to get a permanent red, after a reckless shoulder charge at a ruck, with the decision sent to the bunker and a 20-minute red card eventually handed down.

Their scrum was absolutely decimated by the Boks, and props Andrew Porter and Paddy McCarthy were deservedly sent to the bin after a mountain of scrum penalties, while Sam Prendergast was also binned after too many penalties, and Jack Crowley for cynical play.

The Boks’ sole card was handed to Grant Williams in the dying moments, and despite the many disruptions, Erasmus said it was nothing they hadn’t had to deal with previously on tour.

“We’ve had games with red cards and a concussion when there wasn’t a ping, and we’ve had to grind it out, but in general the match was very physical and there was obviously a 20-minute red card, which I thought was the correct call so that the other player could come onto the field,” said Erasmus.

“I thought we were completely dominant, but we just couldn’t capitalise while we were inside the 22m area, so it was hectic and difficult to manage with who went off and came back on. But that’s Test match rugby and you have to understand and manage those situations.”