Springboks: Rassie Erasmus reveals what keeps his team motivated after Greatest Rivalry series success
The Springboks celebrate after winning the inaugural Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series and their head coach Rassie Erasmus (inset).
Springboks head coach Rassie Erasmus has revealed what keeps his team motivated following their impressive 43-28 victory against the All Blacks in Baltimore on Saturday.
That result means South Africa claimed the inaugural Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry title courtesy of a 3-1 series triumph.
The All Blacks clinched a deserved success in the opening Test in Johannesburg before the Springboks bounced back with successive victories in Cape Town and Soweto ahead of the Baltimore clash.
The world champions outscored the men in black by six tries to four in front of a USA rugby record crowd of more than 68,000 spectators – the majority of whom appeared to be expatriate South Africans.
Erasmus hails the Springboks supporters
“It was awesome to see so many South Africans here; I don’t how they afford it or how they got here, but it’s great,” said Erasmus.
“We appreciate the people who were here, but we don’t forget the people who were at home; the people in the farm or the boy in the township or the people in the shopping mall. That’s what drives us.
“Obviously we want to win and that’s great for us as a team and that’s why we play rugby, but we want them to be happy.”
The triumph in Baltimore confirmed the Boks’ status as the leading team in World Rugby’s official rankings list, which Erasmus conceded was not always easy for others to accept.
“I know we sometimes annoy other people around the world for the way go about things, or the angle we take on issues, but we really care the most about South African people,” he said.
“We enjoy the other people around the world, and we understand their opinions and love the banter, but there’s only one reason for us as a team and for us as a country, it’s for South Africa.”
Meanwhile, Boks skipper Siya Kolisi echoed Erasmus’ sentiments as he also acknowledged the world champions’ global fan base.
“The support is really special for us – that’s who we do it for; the people who can afford to come here and those who are at home,” he said.
‘We were still in the zone’
“Because there was a long stoppage [for referee audio problems], we were still in the zone, but my goodness, in that moment you get to appreciate the crowd singing and enjoying the environment and hopefully we have made it special for them.”
Saturday’s encounter was in the balance until the final quarter and although South Africa beat their arch-rivals in three successive Tests to claim the title, Erasmus feels the margins between the teams were minimal.
“I wouldn’t say we were the better team [today],” he said. “At 60 minutes the game was still in the balance. We appreciate that we won but the margin between us and New Zealand is very small.”
Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list for world-class coverage you can trust.
The teams shared a moment of prayer after the final whistle and Kolisi explained the reasoning behind that gesture by saying: “We came together to thank each other. We go hard against each other, but we get along off the field.
“The way the New Zealanders came to our country and embraced our country and the way they gave themselves to people in our country; we came together to thank them for that.
“It’s tough that one team has to win and one team has to lose but we know we are going to see each other again.”
