Experience key in Bok win over England — Rassie Erasmus

Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus said that experience played a big part in the Boks holding out with 14-men against England late in the game, before sealing a 29-20 win at Twickenham on Saturday night.

Going into the last 15 minutes the Boks held a 10-point lead, but for 10 of the last 12 minutes they had to play without prop Gerhard Steenekamp, after he was yellow carded due to an accumulation of penalties.

That also saw captain Siya Kolisi have to come off in the 71st minute, with prop Wilco Louw going back on, so that the Boks didn’t go to uncontested scrums, which would have seen them reduced to 13-men.

Despite all the disruptions they managed to get through the period unscathed and see out the game comfortably, although they were put under massive pressure throughout.

‘Hanging in there’

“Experience definitely plays a part. The team that we put out there has played in a lot of important games together. Most of them played in the last match of the Rugby Championship against Argentina,” explained Erasmus.

“Getting cards is not something that we are proud of, but hanging in there while we have a card takes character and good planning from the coaches and players.

“So I think calm heads in the coaches box was important, but the players on the field were also cool, calm and handled it with experience.”

‘It was tough’

As in their comfortable-looking 32-15 win over Scotland at Murrayfield a week earlier the scoreline did not tell the whole story, as although they beat England by more than a converted try, they were pushed to the limits throughout and it took a full squad effort to get over the line.

“It was tough. Like last week we had a good winning margin but I don’t think the score reflected how close the game really was. It was a one-try game. We missed a kick here and there and both teams were disallowed tries in the second half,” said Erasmus.

“It was competitive as hell. The injury to Ox (Nche) disrupted the way we usually bring our bench on. But Lukhanyo (Am) brought some energy (late in the game). I thought Malcolm (Marx), Vincent (Koch) and the loose forwards, and Cobus (Reinach) as well, all played their part.

“Overall, we are certainly not happy with the performance, and if you beat England by nine points, it could come across as arrogant to say that. But it wasn’t fantastic and we are content with the result.”