DURBAN – Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus believes the world rankings mean nothing after his team’s 26-20 victory over Scotland at Murrayfield on Saturday: “To beat a team that has become a real force in world rugby, a team that is on up, in the middle of a good home run, is satisfying. The current world rankings doesn’t indicate how tough it is to come and play here and we could have lost the game in the dying minutes.
We’re definitely not the finished product yet, but we are slowly growing into a better team.”
On the Boks maturing in their play: “We’re learning how to close out games and that’s why we won this game because Scotland were as good as us on the day. The maturity of this team is starting to show because we are now winning games from tight situations.
We scored three points when Willie le Roux was off the field with a yellow card and they didn’t score.”
South Africa's Embrose Papier lets rip a box-kick in the match against Scotland on Saturday. Photo: REUTERS/Russell Cheyne
On Embrose Papier and his starting debut: “I really think that in the case of Embrose, we got it right, We thought this was the right game for him and he also handled it very well.
Credit must also go to Mzwandile Stick and Swys de Bruin for the way they’ve blooded him into Test rugby.”