Boks’ Erasmus content with first 50-pointer of Rugby World Cup
Springbok director of rugby Rassie Erasmus was content with his team’s performance after their 57-3 win over Namibia on Saturday night.
On a day that saw Japan inflict another historic upset in their Rugby World Cup history, the Springboks quashed any thought of a nerve-wracking result as they ran in nine tries to beat their African neighbours.
It might not have been a picture-perfect result for South Africa but the try tally and dominant performance at set-pieces were positives in a game that could have become a scrappy affair.
Both teams also had to grapple with the humid conditions which led to a number of handling errors. This was an aspect of the game that Erasmus highlighted in his post-match press conference on Saturday night.
"Yes, I think so. It's difficult to explain to people how tough it is to handle (the ball) in these conditions. It's always easy in the first 20, 25 minutes,” Erasmus explained.
"You can ask the players - the chat before was, ‘Listen, the first 20 minutes, the ball is going to stick, and after that, it is going to be almost impossible to handle the ball. Then it gets a little bit boring, and I guess you could see it even in the Japan-Ireland game - the Japanese did really well because they used the conditions to really handle the ball up until the end.”
Aside from the conditions, Erasmus was happy that the rest of his squad got a good amount of game time in a match he described as more physically demanding than technically so. Having two games under the belt, the director of rugby knows where all his personnel are at ahead of a tougher clash against Italy next week Friday.
"For us overall, a few boxes ticked. Certainly not a perfect performance and a lot of work still to do. But now we go to the crunch game (against Italy). Even before the World Cup started, we said there are going to be five really important games at the World Cup – New Zealand, Italy, and the quarter-final, semi-final and final,” Erasmus said.
"Now it's Italy, and then the three playoff games. A lot of work ahead. It wasn't a wonderful performance, but a solid performance. The first 50-pointer, so not too bad."
The Springboks face Italy next week Friday in Shizuoka.
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