‘Far from perfect’ — Rassie Erasmus unhappy with aspects of Boks’ game despite victory over Ireland

The Boks beat Ireland for the first time since 2016, ending a three-match losing streak, but coach Rassie Erasmus was not purring about the performance.

Rassie Erasmus gave off his usual calm energy in the post-match press conference following the Springboks’ 27-20 win over Ireland at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday. 

He answered questions directly, avoided being sucked into any officiating controversy (after some marginal television match official calls), declared he was happy with the win, indicated there was room for improvement and praised Ireland’s fighting spirit.

But once the session ended and he stood up to leave the room — although few would have noticed it in the rush to file copy — Erasmus’ face clouded. As he swept past, it was easy to sense the aura of an angry and frustrated man. The job of winning was done, but the performance was not ideal. 

Sure, the new attacking intent being added from former All Black flyhalf Tony Brown’s playbook was there for all to see during much of the first half. It was wonderful to witness the Boks moving the ball wide, not off the cuff or for the sake of it, but when the moment presented itself and with a high degree of accuracy. 

Centre Jesse Kriel was deployed well and often, using his pace and strength in the wider channels to ask uncomfortable questions of Ireland’s defence.

Willie le Roux popped into the line more than we have seen in the past, to create an extra man. Extra attackers were added with flanks Siya Kolisi and Pieter-Steph du Toit operating in the wide channels. 

“I’ve known Siya since he was 18 and we don’t play with the labels of openside and blindside flankers,” said Erasmus.

“He’s always been a great runner of the ball and I think we’ve underutilised him there. Once Siya gets a specific role, he does it well. 

“Pieter-Steph has really been solid for us in the past two years, but the ball has to go through a pack of forwards, from where it gets to the halfbacks.

“Ireland contested well at the breakdown and our tactics will change from game to game, but Ireland will work out our tactics and we’ll try to work them out. 

“I hope you can see we’re trying to develop our attacking game with the foundation that Felix [Jones] laid. With Tony [Brown] we’re trying to step up a little in certain areas and with that comes mistakes and lack of cohesion.”

Knew what was coming 

Ireland had expected a more attacking approach from the Boks. Impressive No 8 Caelan Doris admitted that knowing it was coming, and dealing with it, were two different beasts.

“The way they play — pretty set-piece orientated, around the corner off nine quite a bit, you’ve got to front up and you’ve got to win collisions physically,” said Doris. 

“We’ve done that well the last couple of times playing against them and that’s been the basis for the result. [Ireland had won the last three meetings between the sides before Saturday.] 

“They played a bit more expansively today, definitely, and probably tested us. Their first try, they got around us, they played with width and depth so that will be a work-on for next week.”

Were they surprised? 

“Well, seeing Tony Brown come from Japan and the way they played, we thought they might bring some of that,” said Doris. “We saw a slightly more expansive style of play against Wales a couple of weeks ago, so we were ready for bits of it, definitely. 

“But it’s tough when you have to focus on their ball-carriers off nine and if you don’t get that right then they’ll do you out wide. So, there’s definitely two elements to it.” 

Matching two styles 

What Doris was implying is that trying to combat two different styles of Bok rugby is a massive challenge and will only get harder the more the world champions bed down their evolving style.

It was certainly something for Bok fans to get excited about. As one Irish colleague commented, “God help us all when the Boks’ attack matches their defence.” 

Yet, for all the attacking intent and excitement, some key issues arose for the Boks, which nearly cost them the game. 

For a start, until the last 10 minutes, Ireland dominated the scrums. The Boks were also second-best at the breakdown for much of the match. They seemed not to commit as many men to the area, which could have been a result of Kolisi and Du Toit being out wide and therefore often not in positions to hit rucks.

The issue of poor goalkicking arose again with Handré Pollard missing three shots at goal, two of them fairly straightforward by his high standards. 

It was far from a complete performance, which was the reason for Erasmus’ furrowed brow.

Yet Test match wins, especially against Ireland, are precious. Always striving to improve is a necessary trait of a world-champion team. But losing sight of a good result in the face of analysis can also be detrimental. 

There is no doubt the Boks have, in the six years under Erasmus, learnt how to balance performances against winning and losing. It doesn’t mean it’s not frustrating for the coach though. 

“Overall, the goal was achieved but it was far from a perfect performance,” said Erasmus. 

“Ireland are a team we’ve had zero success against since [we took over in] 2018 and the next worst record is against New Zealand — which is a 50% record — and they’ve really had our number.  

“And there were instances where Ireland came back so strongly and if they didn’t have one or two big injuries, the game would have been much tighter. 

“I wouldn’t say it’s a monkey off our back [being the first win over Ireland since 2016], but it’s a really good competitive opponent, who are number two in the world and any day they can step up and beat you and be number one.” 

The Boks have now won 15 of their last 17 Tests and are on a six-match winning streak. In the last decade, they have had one eight-match winning streak (2013-14) and one seven-match winning sequence (2019-2021). 

While Erasmus was not happy, it’s also worth taking a little time to savour a big result against a worthy opponent and go into the new week with positive thoughts brought by a winning momentum.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Maverick.