Cape Town – While the big focus for many Springbok fans will be beating Ireland in the Rugby World Cup pool stage, Rassie Erasmus feels that the opener against Scotland is “probably the biggest Test match for us currently”.
Erasmus and Bok coach Jacques Nienaber addressed the media at the SA Rugby headquarters in Plattekloof, Cape Town yesterday about the build-up to the Rugby Championship and World Cup ahead of their next camp in Durban next week.
The world champions will kick off the defence of the Webb Ellis Cup against Scotland on September 10 at the Stade Velodrome in Marseille, before tackling Romania a week later in Bordeaux.
Then comes the potential Pool B decider against World No 1 side Ireland at the Stade de France in Paris on September 23, before rounding off against Tonga on October 1 in Marseille.
But while Ireland and hosts France are the hot favourites to win the title, the Boks know that the first encounter against Scotland is the most important, as victory in that game will most likely ensure their qualification for the quarter-finals – as they should beat Romania and Tonga.
“Sometimes I think we are putting our head too far ahead. In our 2019 pool, we had New Zealand. And yes, you have two ‘small teams’ who on their day, they can shock you,” Erasmus said yesterday.
“But common sense tells us that if you plan well and play well (you should beat them). But we play Scotland in our first game, and if we beat Scotland, we probably have a bit more breathing space in the rest of the pool.
“Everybody’s going ‘Ireland, Ireland, Ireland’, but if you look at it the other way around…
“We lost to New Zealand (in 2019), and New Zealand probably had a little bit of pressure off them knowing that. I don’t want to pick between New Zealand and France for the quarter-final – let destiny pick that!
“We play against New Zealand often, and we are playing against them twice this year. So, I think people are underestimating the value of the Scotland game.
“And I think Scotland are probably going, ‘Hey, why are you guys not talking about us?’. They will probably have about seven or eight South African-born players in their team.
“Scotland and Ireland may go, ‘We play each other in the last pool match’, so they will probably have to win their last pool match, a quarter-final and semi-final in a row to go to a final.
“Ireland is important. Yes, they’re going to be big. But I think the Scottish Test match, in my opinion, is probably the biggest Test match for us currently.”
Nienaber stated that Bok captain Siya Kolisi is “on track and hitting his markers” in his recovery from a serious knee injury, and that he will go to the World Cup.
Erasmus said that Kolisi will be part of the squad in France even if he isn’t ready for the opening game against Scotland.
“We are hoping that Siya can play in one of those three warm-up matches. Even if he is not 100 percent ready for the Scotland test, it’s a long way to the final of the World Cup,” Erasmus said.
“And being our captain, and having been there and done that, he’s maybe the one guy you can say (be ready for) the match before the World Cup. He is the kind of guy that can do it, like in the previous one (where he also had a knee injury before the 2019 tournament).”
Before that, though, are six Test matches, which include the three Rugby Championship fixtures against Australia (July 8, Pretoria), New Zealand (July 15, Auckland) and Argentina (July 29, Johannesburg).
That will be followed by three warm-up games against Argentina in Buenos Aires (August 5), Wales in Cardiff (August 19) and the All Blacks in London (August 25).
“When we came in during 2018, there was very limited time in terms of preparation. We probably put a lot of focus and emphasis on system stuff – stuff where you can align people quickly, and probably the easiest way is the defence system and the kicking-game system,” Nienaber said.
“A thing that takes a little bit more cohesion is probably the attack side – not that we didn’t put a lot of effort into that. That is the one area where we will have more time to work on now.
“If you think of where we were in 2019, in terms of a position, we were almost clutching at nine… Not clutching, as we knew we had Faf (de Klerk). But there was Ivan (van Zyl) and Embrose (Papier), and then Herschel (Jantjies) came through at the last minute.
“Now, we currently have five, six, maybe seven nines who are competing. In terms of the depth of the squad that we have now, I think we are in a better position.
“We want to try and win the Rugby Championship. But depending on what happens, and if we can, we will probably still re-jig and look for combinations.”
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