Rassie explains how Boks kept discipline intact
INTERVIEW: Rassie Erasmus explained how the Boks kept the number of penalties conceded to a minimum following their 66-7 Nations Championship win over Italy.
The Boks conceded five penalties compared to the 10 of Italy, who also played for 10 minutes with 14 players following Muhamed Hasa’s yellow card for a cynical foul.
South Africa ran Italy ragged, especially during the first half, which possibly contributed to their good discipline, having had full control of the match during that period.
*Also read: Erasmus: ‘We must play much better than this’
In saying that, the South Africans have done some hard work behind the scenes to ensure they stay on the right side of the referee’s whistle, according to Erasmus.
“We’re really trying hard to be within World Rugby’s laws when it comes to [tackle] level changes and all the things that they focused on in the World Rugby meetings,” Erasmus said.
“I don’t think there were intentional penalties, such as players not rolling away at the breakdown; there weren’t many stupid penalties that could’ve been avoided.
“Those are the ones that hurt and frustrate us as coaches, and I don’t think there were many of those that were avoidable.
“We’re quite happy with our discipline, and we’re really trying to get referees and everyone we play against that we’re trying to coach within the laws.
“It’s nice when you don’t have a lot of penalties against you; it helps to build the scoreboard and keep the opposition out of your 22 metre area.
“We’re working really hard on that with Jaco Peyper and the whole team, so yes, I’m pretty satisfied.”
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The Boks conceded more second-half penalties, but Erasmus credited Italy’s fight in that stanza, which could have had an influence on the visitors’ discipline.
“I just think Italy became desperate and started to keep the ball in hand; I felt they kicked a lot during the first half and didn’t keep the ball in hand.
“And at the same time, we were very good in the air when we dominated the contestable kicks during the first half, and in the second half Italy kept possession more.
“Yes, we made some changes, but that shouldn’t have influenced the way our defensive pattern and how we attack, but we only conceded seven points.
“So we’re pretty happy with our defence. We’ve always found Italy a tough team to scrum against.
“They scrum well in general, and they were excellent in the scrums again in this Test match.
“It wasn’t so much a case of us taking our foot off the pedal; it’s more a case of Italy upping their game in the second half.”
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