‘No disrespect’: Erasmus defends Bok selection for Wallabies battle

SA Rugby’s director of rugby Rassie Erasmus has insisted that the selected Springbok team to play Australia on Saturday night at Loftus Versfeld in the opening game of the Rugby Championship is by no means disrespectful to the Wallabies but rather a show of respect to the competition.

Before Test week, the Boks brains trust announced they would split the squad into two, with one group staying home to face Australia while the other would jet off to New Zealand to beat the jet leg and be in good shape for next week’s match in Auckland.

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Although the team that will face the Wallabies includes 11 players that won the World Cup in 2019, there’s a feeling among the Australian media that they are a second-string Boks team. Speaking on Wednesday, however, Erasmus dismissed that notion.

“I can tell you we definitely don’t disrespect them,” Erasmus said.

“We have been preparing for three weeks for Australia, and I think it’s more respect for the competition, it’s not a lack of respect for Australia.

“We wouldn’t have a chance against New Zealand if we arrive there on Tuesday and have one training session after we play a quality side like Australia. I’m pretty sure it will be a competitive match on Saturday.

“To get back to the respect side of things, if we see the players starting this game making it against Australia, it gives us good answers of what we can do in a World Cup against big teams.”

In the dark

With Australia announcing their squad on Thursday, the Boks are in the dark, but it is expected that Wallabies coach Eddie Jones will field his strongest team for his first Test back. For Erasmus and Co, preparing for the Wallabies has been difficult. 

“It’s difficult to prepare for Australia, it’s Eddie with all the new coaching staff, players he hasn’t worked with, we don’t even know how long they have been in camp. We can’t analyse the previous games they played for Australia, and can’t go and look at how Eddie coached for England because he’s got different players,” Erasmus said.

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Jones, who was appointed as Wallabies coach in January, is in a race against time to get his charges ready for the World Cup in France in September and October.

The question now is can Jones perform an Erasmus-like miracle and mould a World Cup winning team in a short space of time? Erasmus believes he can.

“He can definitely do it because he’s working with Australians. He doesn’t have to get used to the way they think, the way they operate, what makes them tick, what gets them up.”