The Springboks are right back in the Rugby Championship hunt, sitting second on the log, a point behind leaders the Wallabies.
The Springboks won’t be getting ahead of themselves after their terrific 43-10 win over the All Blacks in Wellington over the weekend, with coach Rassie Erasmus keeping their feet firmly on the ground after the record breaking performance.
It was the Boks’ biggest ever win over their greatest foes, breaking their own record set at Twickenham (35-7) before the 2023 World Cup, and is also the largest defeat the All Blacks have suffered at home, and in their history.
But despite the statement performance, Erasmus chose to keep his team’s feet firmly grounded, by pointing to the fact that there was still everything to play for in the Rugby Championship.
Australia now top the log on 11 points, thanks to their last-gasp try in their 28-26 loss to Argentina that gave them two losing bonus points, for scoring three tries or more and finishing within seven points.
Boks second
The Boks are second, level on 10 points with the All Blacks, but well ahead of them on points difference, while Los Pumas sit bottom on nine, but all four teams are still well in the fight for the title.
“The belief within the team is the most important thing. We are building and hopefully people can see that. It is a long season and we have an Argentina team that is playing really well next,” said Erasmus after the game on Saturday.
“We have achieved nothing yet, but we are still in the mix for the Rugby Championship. We are getting better. The first 30 minutes (in Wellington) we still made a lot of errors but the belief remained that we can do it.
“It is a 24-hour job these days, keeping confidence with social media, and what people are saying. So it (the win) is nice, it is satisfying. But the reality is that tomorrow they (New Zealand) will regroup.
“And Argentina will look at our scrums, our lineouts and how we attack, and they will prepare to try and beat us.”
Looking ahead
Looking ahead to the Boks’ final two games of the competition, they can be quietly confident of retaining their title, if they can pick up two wins over Argentina as expected.
Los Pumas are a bit of a wildcard, and can produce blinding performances at times, but are inconsistent, and with the matches being played in Durban, and the Boks’ home away from home, Twickenham, that will benefit the defending champions.
Erasmus will, however, have a selection dilemma on his hands, after his inexperienced charges were immense in the win over the All Blacks, so it will be interesting to see if the veterans that were left out will be brought back in, while there are also a few injury concerns.
“We do have a couple of injuries, which we do not know the extent of yet, but the two that appear to be serious are Lood (de Jager) and Aphelele (Fassi),” said Erasmus.
