Springboks: Rassie Erasmus admits to ‘bad planning’ in loss to All Blacks and explains why ‘very inspirational person’ had to be recalled for second Test

Springboks boss Rassie Erasmus has pointed the finger of blame at himself for last Saturday’s Greatest Rivalry defeat to the All Blacks and explained what having skipper Siya Kolisi back for next weekend means.

South Africa were beaten 33-16 in the opening Test in Johannesburg and Erasmus has reacted by not taking it out on his players with a brutal review, instead suggesting he got his planning wrong for the series-opening match.

Addressing the media on Tuesday after confirming that Kolisi had some through training unscathed and would take his place in the line-up as captain in Cape Town, Erasmus scolded himself for how his team unravelled in the 17-point loss to New Zealand.

“Sometimes we as coaches, when we win, players and coaches take all the credit a lot, but when we lose, sometimes the players get a lot of blame,” he explained.

“Game was very much lost about decisions I made during the week…”

“But this game was very much lost about decisions I made during the week, trying to change things up, maybe being too clever and then maybe making some subs at the wrong time.

“And yeah, maybe working out plans during the week, which we overanalysed, and it was definitely not a review where (it was), ‘Hey boys, you were really bad’.

“It was, ‘Listen, the plans that we made as a coaching team together,’ and then in the game, for the first time in a long time, we were caught out with the injury early on to Kurt-Lee (Arendse).

“That disrupted it. Jesse (Kriel) had to go to wing and Damian (de Allende) to outside centre and then Grant (Williams), who was covering wing for us, had an injury in the game.

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“So, for our backline’s cohesion, we did not do our homework well enough and thinking that if Kurt-Lee, in the first five minutes, gets an injury and that’s not on the players. All of a sudden everybody’s playing out of position and that’s maybe because of bad planning.”

In response to the defeat, Erasmus has named a backline showing three changes with Ethan Hooker on the wing in place of the injured Cheslin Kolbe, while Handre Pollard and Cobus Reinach are preferred at half-back ahead of the benched Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and the injured Williams.

Up front, Tuesday’s confirmation that Kolisi has overcome his latest hamstring injury means he will start in the No.6 jersey, with Paul de Villiers dropping out of the matchday 23 after he was originally bracketed on Monday in the back row with the fitness-testing captain.

“Siya’s 100 per cent; he’ll be starting. Captain,” said Erasmus in Johannesburg on Tuesday ahead of the Cape Town Test. “It was just a hamstring, you know. The previous big ones which he had before 2019 and 2023 were knees.

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“It’s not a hamstring where he was running at maximum speed. He was at a breakdown (against Argentina) where he was trying to steal the ball, and then he got cleaned from behind and then he just overextended.

“You know, a grade two hamstring takes a little bit longer and that’s why we’re just really cautious. I mean, last week was maybe touch and go, and then Sunday, when he did some rehab, he said, ‘No’, when he gets up off the ground, he still feels it a little bit.

“But we said, ‘Well, okay, you’ll have to run full out Monday,’ and he did full out Monday and full out Tuesday without any discomfort. So, he’s good to go.”

Kolisi’s proven fitness will see him take over the captaincy from Pieter-Steph du Toit, who had been named in the role on Monday. “Piety just took it for us on Monday so Siya can fully concentrate on getting to know his job and do his work.

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“And then today [Tuesday], me and Piety had a chat and it is his 100th match. In your 100th match, you probably don’t want to have the captaincy and a lot of things around you; you really want to play well, and what Siya means for us and South Africa, it means a lot; it means for our team a lot.

“Piety was excellent as captain, but Siya is our captain at this stage and those 25 minutes he played against Argentina, he played really, really well and obviously it’s not just his game; he’s also a very inspirational person and a guy that means a lot for us on and off the field in tough and in good times.”

READ MORE: Rassie Erasmus makes ‘different’ Springboks team admission and explains Handre Pollard selection