Ex-Springboks boss questions Rassie Erasmus’ selection: ‘He looks like a lock playing flank’
Springboks head coach Rassie Erasmus and an inset of Elrigh Louw.
Nick Mallett has questioned one selection from Rassie Erasmus for the Springboks’ clash with the Wallabies in Perth.
The head coach made 13 changes to his team ahead of the showdown, with only Ethan Hooker and Eben Etzebeth retaining their starting roles following the victory over the All Blacks in Baltimore.
Verdict on Rassie Erasmus’ selections
Mallett understands why Erasmus made the alterations following four consecutive Tests against New Zealand but believes the coach got the make-up of his back-row wrong.
“Rassie certainly wanted a mobile front row, and we had that. I thought their ability around the field, on defence, was outstanding. Zach Porthen got around the field, and so did Jan-Hendrik Wessels and Johan Grobbelaar,” the former Springboks head coach said on the Talking Boks podcast.
“I didn’t think that the balance of the loose forwards was great. Elrigh Louw looks more like a lock playing flank as opposed to a proper out-and-out flank who’s really quick. We are blessed with big guys who are quick, and I don’t think he’s that fast. I didn’t think Marco van Staden had a great game. I didn’t see enough of him. Cameron Hanekom would have made a difference, but they obviously want to rest him and give him a break. So we have got a lot of depth still.
“I thought Canan Moodie did well; he did really well, and Esterhuizen was direct and physical. A pity that we had a little knock-on for [Edwill] van der Merwe’s try, but we scored one beautiful backline try with a lovely pass from Pollard, so there was a moment there when Pollard also got momentum to our backline… so there were a bits of Tony Brown in that performance.”
Irreplaceable players
Erasmus did load his bench with seven players who did feature against the All Blacks along with full-back Quan Horn. Mallett believes that the one-off Test match against the Wallabies wasn’t a big enough match for Erasmus to warrant selecting the same team that beat the All Blacks.
“We did have a very poor 20 minutes in the second half, and it was while the bench came on as well,” he added.
“So it was putting the bench on and getting the other guys off, and they just pegged away with those three penalties. The one try was a good one, but the mistake we made, which got them to 42, I think, was really difficult.
“I’m not sure Quan Horn had enough time on the field for us to make a real judgment about his performance. It’s difficult coming on in those circumstances when we were down by as much as we were.
“If this had been a really important game, say a game in the greatest rivalry, we would have started with our bench except for Quan Horn; we would have definitely started with the seven other guys, and we would have brought the youngsters off the bench with 20 to 30 minutes to go to add energy at the end of the game, and if we’d done it that way round, despite the travel, I still believe we would have been up at half-time against these guys. We would have been getting scrum penalties because there’s a massive difference between Ox Nche, Malcolm Marx, and Wilco Louw as a scrummaging unit.
“Remember, behind them they had Etzebeth and Mostert, then Lood came on. So there was nothing wrong with that tight five. If they had started the game, Australia would have been under the same pressure that New Zealand was, and when New Zealand were under pressure, they were giving away scrum penalties, which allowed us then to kick for touch, get our maul going, they get penalties against defending the maul illegally, and I think we would have done that.”
Where the Springboks failed to get the upper hand
The Boks’ inability to get regular penalties at scrum was problematic for Erasmus’ men while the Wallabies also did well under the high ball.
“I do think that our lack of scrum penalties was a problem for us, and the contestable game wasn’t as good as it usually is,” he said.
“Those are the two key areas that came out of that game, where Australia really did well.
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” I thought Sua’ali’i on the wing was very, very good in the air, and Jorgensen was outstanding. He reminded me a bit of Kolbe, not a very tall guy, but very, very good with his timing; jumping up and beating Quan Horn in the air with one of their contestables. Won a lot. They were very good. They didn’t allow us to get many of the scraps at all, and that’s what we feed off. We are good at scoring tries off those transitions.”
