Erasmus plays down history making Boks: ‘We mustn’t brag about it’

Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus looked to play down his history making team after they clinched a fourth straight win over the All Blacks in their Rugby Championship game at the Cape Town Stadium on Saturday night.

The Boks clinched a hard fought 18-12 win in a match that they had to battle back from a halftime deficit, as they did the previous weekend at Ellis Park where they won 31-27.

Their other two wins over their greatest rivals came last year, in the World Cup final at the Stade de France (12-11) and in their pre-World Cup warm-up at Twickenham (35-7).

Four wins

This is only the second time in the Boks’ history, and first in the professional era, that they have managed to pick up four straight wins or more against the All Blacks.

“It was important for us to win four in a row, but they have beaten us six times in a row before so it isn’t something we must brag too much about,” said Erasmus after the match.

“They have done worse to us. This week the talk was all about the Freedom Cup, we talked about it a lot. It wasn’t necessarily about the Rugby Championship, although that is important. But we still have some work to do to win the Championship.

“We put everything into winning the Freedom Cup, something that we didn’t play for in my era as a player, but the All Blacks have held onto for the last 15 years.”

Second half tries

In the match the Boks got off to a slow start, just like in the previous game in Johannesburg, with them eventually heading into the halftime break 9-3 down.

They struggled particularly in the lineouts and at the breakdown during the match, which helped the All Blacks lead at the break and keep in touch over the second half.

But two tries, the first from captain Siya Kolisi in the 49th minute to take the lead, and the second from Malcolm Marx in the 73rd, which pushed them into a six point lead, helped them clinch a deserved victory in the end.

“I think we had too much of an emotional start, the guys were feeling the emotions too much. They were up for the battle, but they were not accurate, and that impacted us in the first half in particular,” said Erasmus.

“At the breakdowns the All Blacks completely overshadowed us. That was our big let down and an area of concern in the game,” admitted Erasmus.

“We had some overthrows by the hooker, that was the problem with the lineouts in the first half. A guy like Ruan (Nortje) was playing only his fourth Test and his second against New Zealand.

“It was a timing issue that was sorted out later. Last week Ruan had Pieter-Steph (du Toit) with him at the start to help with the running of the lineout. But it was all on him this week. The All Blacks did their homework there and made us struggle a bit.”