The Springboks are expected to return to some of their more traditional strengths in the second Test against the Wallabies.
The Springboks will be looking to get the balance right in their gameplan, after they got it horribly wrong in their surprise 38-22 Rugby Championship defeat against the Wallabies at Ellis Park, according to coach Rassie Erasmus.
The Boks backed a very ambitious and attacking gameplan for the opening Test of the competition this past Saturday, and it looked to be paying off at first as they raced into a 22-0 lead after 18 minutes.
But the team then seemed to run out of energy and looked gassed, as they took a 22-5 lead into the halftime break, before falling away dramatically in the second half, as they conceded six unanswered tries and 38 unanswered points in all, to crumble to a heavy defeat.
Over the past year and a half, since New Zealander Tony Brown took over as attack coach, the Boks have been looking to open up their play style and become a more expansive team, and Erasmus admitted that they had gone too far from their traditional strengths against the Aussies.
“If you play beautiful rugby and you lose, you lose. If you play boring rugby and you win, then people are happy. We were totally on the wrong side of that balance on Saturday, and that is not because Tony coaches that way,” said Erasmus.
“It is a trap that we fell into against Italy in the first match when we were 25 points up. You tend to think things are easy and there is so much space. Then a proud country like Australia takes their opportunities.
“We had a proper meeting (on Monday) and the feeling is frustration. But at least we know what we did wrong. That is the most important thing. They totally outplayed us.”
Thorough review
Erasmus said that the team had done a thorough review and analysis on the past weekend’s game, and had already formulated plans on how to turn things around in what is now a must-win match in Cape Town on Saturday.
There will obviously be a number of changes to the team, after captain Siya Kolisi, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Kurt-Lee Arendse and Edwill van der Merwe were all ruled out through injury, while Cheslin Kolbe and Damian de Allende will be back.
“We went through our things, and we know exactly what we did wrong. In a game like that, we could not even say we were unlucky. Four of their tries there were not even a phase,” explained Erasmus.
“An intercept pass here, an offload there, and they worked to be in those positions. We went through our facets, and internally we have announced the team. We didn’t want to do it (announce) today (Monday) again, then people would say it’s mind games.
“We said last week (we know) what we are up against, I don’t think the world believed us when we said it’s a really good Wallaby team. We believed it and they showed it.”
