Battle of the desperates in Brisbane
RUGBY CHAMPIONSHIP SPOTLIGHT: Australia and South Africa will both be desperate for a morale-boosting win when the two teams meet in Brisbane next weekend.
The Springboks head to Australia on the back of a disappointing 19-32 loss to Argentina in Mendoza. A week before that the Boks laboured to a 34-21 win over the same opponents in Durban.
Australia suffered two big defeats to the All Blacks in the opening two rounds. Michael Cheika’s side went down 13-38 in Sydney and then went on to lose 12-40 in their next encounter in Auckland.
“They [Australia] are maybe in a worse position with the two games they had against the World champions, so they will be desperate and that will make them dangerous,” said Bok head coach Rassie Erasmus.
“We are desperate, we lost against a team who we desperately didn’t want to lose against, so I think it will be two teams trying their best to rectify the previous weeks’ mistakes and with them playing at home it will just make it tougher for us.
“We are ready and up for the challenge. We know that the only way to get last week out of our minds is by winning the next game.”
Erasmus added: “When you lose the pressure is more. Even if you lose to the All Blacks by one point the pressure will be on, so the pressure is definitely on us to perform better and to win and the players understand that and I’m pretty sure the training and the effort will show that on Saturday.”
After their loss to Argentina in Mendoza, Erasmus said he cannot afford to experiment too much in Mendoza.
“If we won in Argentina, we were going to make quite a few changes for this match to test a few things without disrespecting Australia.
“But we put ourselves in a position where we have to win at all costs, which is always the case in the Springbok jersey. We will definitely experiment much less now,” he said.
@rugby365com
