Erasmus doubles down as Springboks look to win series

If there was any hope that the Springboks might take their foot off the pedal after beating Ireland last weekend, those notions were quickly dismissed this afternoon.

In naming an identical matchday squad for Saturday’s second Test in Durban, Rassie Erasmus has settled on what appears to be his best available starting side.

The 990 caps in the starting XV alone makes it the most experienced South African side ever picked for an international, beating the 987 that began last year’s World Cup final against New Zealand.

Last week, South Africa beat Ireland for the first time since 2016, ending a run of three straight defeats, and Erasmus says they aren’t satisfied just yet.

“Without a doubt, we know that every single time we go up against them it’s going to be a very tight match,” he said, at a press conference in uMhlanga, just north of Durban.

“They clearly had our number [previously]. This weekend again, in the last minute if they kept the ball through phases, it would have been a draw.

“Certainly, they created a lot and they could have scored one, two, or three tries more. We both scored three tries and we had a few more opportunities that wouldn’t have just been opportunist, it was some well-structured play that didn’t end up in tries.

“If we do manage to make it 2-0, it wouldn’t be just satisfaction for me, it would be nice for South Africa, for the team and for our morale.

“They had our number in the last four Test matches, they’re 3-1 up. It would be nice, but not for me especially, for South Africa.”

This day last week, Erasmus was in a mischievous mood as he cracked jokes and worked the room at their Pretoria base, working through his repetoire of mind games before the first Test at Loftus Versfeld.

This week, his tone was much straighter, with sights set on a series win over Andy Farrell’s side.

While Erasmus picked an unchanged squad, Farrell won’t have that luxury, with Dan Sheehan and Craig Casey’s injuries ensuring that there will be at least two changes to the Irish side when it’s named on Thursday.

Conor Murray appears most likely to start at scrum-half in Casey’s absence, and having worked with the 35-year-old during his time at Munster, Erasmus says he’s well aware of what to expect from the Irish half-backs.

“I know him [Murray] personally well, he’s a great team man, so I think overall calmness, and obviously a great kicking game with those box-kicks, he’s certainly kicking it the highest I’ve encountered as a coach.

“You always have to settle in but we know [Jack] Crowley is class, and so was the previous nine [Casey] who got injured.

“Conor has been there and done it all, Lions, Munster, Pro 14s, all of those things, so he will bring a lot of calmness,” he added.

The South Africa head coach is hoping his side can keep up their good record against the Irish lineout on Saturday.

Having picked apart the Irish throw in tgheir World Cup meeting, the disrputed four of Ireland’s lineouts last week which thwarted teh irish attack.

And Erasmus says while a lot of study goes into the opposition, his players have also become better at reading the game in the moment.

“With Paul O’Connell [Ireland forwards coach], you just know you’ll have to be on top of your game. I know him personally. I worked with him for 18 months and played against him and everything.

“You’re always going to get a very technical, tactical, smart lineout, not just stopping their lineout.

“They move well, but they’ve also got front-peels and and back-peel and off-the-top also. So there’s so many things to cover.

“I do think the team [Boks] is becoming a little bit more mature, and players are taking more responsibility, like the Irish players that I experienced when I was there. There’s a bit of a cultural difference where players comes in, learn profiles, study opposition and it took us some time to get this squad.

“We started in 2018 and here we are six years later we have slowly brought that culture of ownership of those things.

“But we know it’s like that, next game you lose six lineouts on your own ball and you don’t get a ball off them; that’s how smart Paulie and his lineout callers are, his hookers are.

“So, yes, it was nice to win a few but then again they stopped our maul like it was almost nothing. And that’s all the different small things we must try get on top of them and they will certainly try the same,” Erasmus said.

Listen to live commentary of South Africa v Ireland (4pm) on Saturday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1, and follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app.