AUDIO: Boks won't be looking for ego boosts
AUDIO: The Wallabies and skulduggery have often been words used in the same sentence, and the Springboks mustn’t look for ego boosts when the ball is out of play.
That is the advice of the Boks’ tactical innovator and revered coach Rassie Erasmus.
Erasmus himself was not a saint on the rugby field during his playing days. In 1994, at the age of 21, he made his debut for the Free State against Border and was sent off for headbutting an opponent.
He has come a long way and now finds himself being viewed as a strategic motivator and a leader in the field.
The Wallabies’ third Test against the British and Irish Lions was brutal. It was attrition all the way. Aggravation was everywhere. A couple of melees broke out. An element of badness existed.
Every inch was hard won, every collision brutal. The rain might have been a great leveller if it hadn’t been for the demonic intensity of the Wallabies.
The hosts, and underdogs, were dominant for much of a dramatic evening, outscoring the Lions by three tries to two. They led the Sydney slugfest.
Are the Springboks ready for the Wallabies, who arrived in Johannesburg on a high from that victory?
And is a slugfest, fraught with skulduggery, on the cards?
Erasmus’ philosophy is clear: When the ball is in play, you get dominance and physicality. When the ball is out of play, you get an ego boost.
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“We don’t want an ego boost. When the ball is in play, we want to tackle hard, get good cleanout, and carry hard.
“Hopefully do well in the scrums and mauls, attack well in the Tony [Brown] manner,” Erasmus said.
“Ben O’Keefe is a referee who has been officiating at the highest level.
“And that is not the way Joe [Schmidt] coaches. I have never seen that from him.
“But it did look like that was their plan [against the Lions].
“If that is their plan here, hopefully our players will do their job when the ball is in play and focus on the game.
“Because [if they react] when the ball is out of play – we are not a bunch of chiropractors. We don’t want to pull at each other and manipulate each other’s backs.
“We want to play good rugby,” Erasmus said firmly.
The question can rightly be asked if the Springboks are as battle-ready as the Wallabies. Or will the visitors be punch drunk from their last outing?
“I can’t see them not being on a high with the way they finished that series, and he [Joe Schmidt] would like to finish on a high.
“And the players have a lot of respect for what he brought to the Australian jersey. The fight for the jersey is back, and that is what Joe normally does.
“There are two realities. There’s what they believe in their team and what we believe in our team, and then there is the truth. We’ll find out on Saturday what the truth is.
“Their coach is moving out, which might motivate them massively to say thank you for what he has done.
“We are under no illusion that the moment you start clicking and start understanding each other and the real belief is there, and it’s not plastic belief that people talk it up, but play it up – I think they are currently playing it up on the field.
“This Rugby Championship is very open to all four teams.”
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