Rassie Erasmus craftily popped up in the media to discuss England’s strengths, while also suggesting that he is going to make a host of changes to the Springbok team for Saturday’s World Cup semi-final in Paris (9pm kickoff).
Wales coach Warren Gatland, who had some tasty sparring sessions with Erasmus during the British & Irish Lions series two years ago, says England coach Steve Borthwick must not get sucked in to the SA director of rugby’s mind games.
“Whisper it, but I think England can beat the Springboks – as long as they don’t allow Rassie Erasmus to control the agenda this week,” Gatland wrote in UK newspaper The Telegraph yesterday.
Erasmus has said that the Springboks are not the favourites because of the momentum England are enjoying at the World Cup, and because they want vengeance because the Boks beat them in the 2019 final.
“They are unbeaten in France, they’ve stuck to their guns since Borthwick was appointed, and they are a team that believes in what they are doing,” said Erasmus.
“It always hurts when you lose in a World Cup, and I guess England want to get one back on us. They want to make their people proud.
“So yes, I believe they’ll have beef with us after last year (the Boks won comfortably at Twickenham) and the last World Cup final.
“They will be very physical and step up in the set-phases, and you never know what their players will dish up, especially (Owen) Farrell and their new scrumhalf (Alex Mitchell), who lights things up. So, they have threats all over the park.”
Erasmus also has no doubt Borthwick is crafting special plans to outwit the Boks.
“We are worried about the plans they are making,” said Erasmus.
“They won a Test with 14 players with a lot of drop goals, and that aspect of their game could come up again this week.”
The Boks will name their team this morning, but on Tuesday evening, Erasmus was letting England stew for a few days on some possible changes.
“There is a temptation to bring Lukhanyo (Am) in and start Handré (Pollard) and Faf (de Klerk), as well as Canan (Moodie) – and we are also thinking of a six-two split on the bench,” Erasmus said.
“Every player in our squad is fit, so we have all 33 players to select from. We would also like to see what they do.
“If they go for a six-two split, then we’ll have to make some plans.
“We can also bring in a guy like Jean Kleyn, who will bring some physicality against their tall lineout options.
“That’s probably the reason we are only announcing our team two days before the match.”
Erasmus insisted, however, that it is important to block out all the white noise.
“There are three realities – what England believes, what the world says, and what we believe. England have stuck to what has been working for them.
“We’ll stay in our reality, and focus on how we train,” he said.
Erasmus did, however, rule out a split of seven forwards and only one back on the bench: “It will be tough to have a seven-one split with Handré and Manie (Libbok) available, so a seven-one split is out of the question.”
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