OUT ON THE sun-kissed pool area at the Springboks’ team hotel, the vervet monkeys were running amok.
They leapt from canopy to canopy, streaked along the railings, and grabbed a few jars of jam from one of the breakfast tables. Efforts by staff to chase them away were met with hisses and frowns.
Inside at the Boks’ press conference half an hour later, there wasn’t quite the same fun and games. Rassie Erasmus was clearly in good form but there were few fireworks this week, a contrast to his media briefing before the first Test with Ireland.
Read into that what you will but it was hard to avoid the sense that Erasmus was in more relaxed form because he was able to name an unchanged matchday 23 for this Saturday’s second clash against Ireland, a relative luxury in Test rugby.
He knows that Andy Farrell’s men were hit hard by injury in the first Test and he believes the Springboks will be much better this weekend as they continue to get to grips with what new attack coach Tony Brown and defence coach Jerry Flannery are looking for.
Erasmus was full of compliments for Ireland as his team look to send them packing with a 2-0 series defeat.
“Since we got together as a group, we’ve lost to them by three points, three points and five points, or something like that, two was away games and one was a neutral venue, so they clearly had our number,” said Erasmus of Ireland this afternoon.
“Last weekend again, in the last minute if they kept the ball through phases, it would have been a draw. Certainly, they created a lot and they could have scored one, two, or three tries more.
“We both scored three tries and we had a few more opportunities that wouldn’t have just been opportunist, it was some well-structured play that didn’t end up in tries.”
He said that beating Ireland is no different to winning against any other big team.
“Personally, when we go to play the All Blacks, it’s nice to win,” said Erasmus. “When you play against Wales, it’s nice to win. But Ireland is certainly one of the teams that’s been peaking and ruling the Six Nations and delivering world-class players and world XVs.
“Without a doubt, we know that every single time we go up against them it’s going to be a very tight match. If we do manage to make it 2-0, it wouldn’t be just satisfaction for me, it would be nice for South Africa, for the team and for our morale.
“They had our number in the last four Test matches, they’re 3-1 up. It would be nice but not for me especially, for South Africa.”
Erasmus said he didn’t think the Boks greatly caught Ireland by surprise with their style of play, aside perhaps from the opening try for Kurt-Lee Arendse, again praising the Irish effort.
“They had that one move in the middle ruck, simply caught us by surprise, it was a really well-worked try [finished by Conor Murray] from them and it was a few of them that just didn’t go their way.
“Then on our side, I think we’re definitely a team that’s trying new teams and it’s the time to try new things.”
Erasmus was asked for a prediction for the Ireland matchday 23, having given his selection ahead of the first Test. He claimed that hadn’t been mind games but rather an effort to compare the weights of the two teams.
“I actually tried to just compare the weights and the sizes for people to see how close it is,” said Erasmus.
“People always tend to see us as this big, heavy pack but the last eight games we played I think we were lighter than the opposition right through.
“It’s really not always mind games, sometimes it’s facts.”
He guessed that Rónan Kelleher and Conor Murray will come in for the injury Dan Sheehan and Craig Casey, while he said he doesn’t know if Ireland will make a change in the back row.
The one question that did seem to pique Erasmus’ attention more was about Matt Williams saying that it’s dangerous for teams to bring on six fresh forwards off the bench at once, as the Boks did last weekend against Ireland.
“To be honest with you, I’ve learned that if you know the laws and the protocols and you don’t go outside the protocols… I’ve been slapped over my wrist for not doing that.
“Then learning and adapting, I really don’t see how that would be [dangerous]. Our reality is, listen man, we could send them on one by one, but all six go at the same time. I don’t know if that’s dangerous. I mean, Ireland definitely also play with 6/2.
“I don’t think the Irish team feel that way, I don’t think Andy Farrell feels that way. It’s one individual who said that.
“They handled it well and after that, they still scored two great tries to make it a really tense game. One injury was in the first half was Sheehan before the Bomb Squad comes on.”
- This article was updated at 2.19pm to correct ‘velvet’ to ‘vervet’ in the opening paragraph.
