Springboks: Rassie Erasmus to make changes for second Test after All Blacks scored ‘easy tries’
All Blacks winger Caleb Clarke and an insert of Springboks coach Rassie Erasmus.
Rassie Erasmus is set to stick to his rotation policy this year stating that he will make changes to the Springboks squad for the second Test match against the All Blacks in Cape Town.
South Africa fought back from 17-27 down to defeat the All Blacks 31-27 thanks to late tries from Kwagga Smith and Grant Williams who made notable impacts from the bench.
Despite, the come-from-behind victory over Scott Robertson’s charges, Erasmus will not be naming the same Springboks matchday 23 for the round four clash in the Mother City.
Siya Kolisi is one of the star names that is likely to miss Test Two after the Bok skipper sustained a facial injury – a suspected fracture.
Changes to come
But without going into too much detail, Erasmus said that other changes would be made.
It’s been a common theme for the Bok boss this year to make alternations to his team with the only exception being the two-Test series against Ireland in July.
He made 10 changes from his starting team that defeated the Wallabies in Brisbane for the side that tackled Australia in Perth a week later.
It might not be as drastic as it was in Australia with the Springboks able to take another step closer to winning the Rugby Championship with a second win over New Zealand and Erasmus admitted his side were close to losing in Johannesburg.
Siya Kolisi dedicates Springboks’ win over the All Blacks to ‘South Africans who are still not free’
“At one stage the All Blacks were three tries up and looking at a bonus point so a possible five points for them. So at that stage, we were looking to just deny them a bonus point,” he said.
“So the boys just got into it and the Rugby Championship is very important to us and we would love to win it but we will definitely try a few new players again and hopefully they make it.
“But we are under no illusions that we are well placed now, I don’t know what Australia and Argentina are going to do – that will be very interesting if Argentina win two games, they are suddenly in the picture. So, we will not get ahead of ourselves, we will look at this game and see why we couldn’t get out of our half at stages and why we couldn’t capitalise when we were there [in the All Blacks half].
“We have too much respect for the All Blacks to look beyond next week.”
Improving defensively
Reflecting on the game, the Springboks boss also said that his side will need to look after the ball better in attack after conceding “easy tries” at Ellis Park with the All Blacks being lethal on turnover ball.
“We gave them a couple of easy tries, and their turnover attack hurt us the most when our defence was not quite set,” he added.
“But we defended really well when things were structured. If the All Blacks had won the Test then they would have deserved it. We know the result could have gone the other way, we could easily have lost. But our character was there.”
