Boks’ discipline will have to be better, says ‘happy’ Erasmus

Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus said that a lack of discipline was the only concern for him after his inexperienced team picked up an impressive 64-21 win over Portugal in their final game of the Incoming Series at the Free State Stadium in Bloemfontein on Saturday night.

The team featuring seven uncapped players and a further seven players with less than 10 Bok caps, were given a proper Test of their budding credentials after a third minute red card to Andre Esterhuizen saw them play the rest of the game with less men than their opponents.

That was exacerbated by yellow cards to Kurt-Lee Arendse and Quan Horn towards the end of the first and second halves, forcing them to play with 13-men, however they still managed to score a try against 15 at both of those stages.

Discipline concerns

Esterhuizen was initially given a yellow card for a high tackle, even though the impact seemed to be on the body, with the “bunker review system” upgrading it to a red after they claimed that there was head contact in the tackle.

Arendse was then sent to the sin bin for a croc roll, while Horn received his marching orders for colliding with a player in the air.

“I was happy with everything other than our discipline. A red card and two yellow cards are not going to win us World Cups,” explained Erasmus after the match.

“They were accidents, it definitely wasn’t on purpose. We train level changes and not playing players in the air. So we have some stuff to work on.

“But what was nice is that we had to make plans on the field to play with 14 men (and at times 13), which was a good experience (for the players).”

Positive support

Erasmus said the good support of the crowd, even at the start of the match when the Boks were struggling after the red card and had conceded the first try, was key in getting the players back up and into their groove.

“It wasn’t a beautiful match at times, and it didn’t look like we were going to punish them with 50 points, but the crowd never got negative. It was a positive crowd to play in front of and I think that really helped the players,” said Erasmus.

New Springbok captain Salmaan Moerat was impressed with the way Portugal pushed them throughout the game and also heaped praise on flyhalves Manie Libbok and Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu for the way they managed the game after the red card.

“They (Portugal) showed what a quality side they are. They took us coast-to-coast and there were stages where we were trying to catch our breath,” said Moerat.

“When we went down to 14, we knew we had to work even harder as a tight five, but a lot of credit needs to go to Manie and Sacha and the way they managed that situation without an inside centre.”