Erasmus defends risky Springboks shakeup after a tense win over Scotland

PRETORIA, South Africa (AP) — Coach Rassie Erasmus believes the South African public would have understood what he’s trying to do if the Springboks had lost to Scotland at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday.

South Africa didn’t lose, but it was a nail-biter. It took until the 77th minute for the Boks to clinch the win by 42-28. They won a 10th straight test and upheld their undefeated record at home against Scotland.

Erasmus made 10 changes to the team which hammered England 45-21 in the first round of the Nations Championship. He admitted it was a risk but said he’s trying to spread the workload, give guys more experience, and was forced by a lengthy injury list.

The wounded include Ox Nche, Malcolm Marx, Frans Malherbe, Eben Etzebeth, Franco Mostert, RG Snyman, Lood de Jager, captain Siya Kolisi, Kwagga Smith, Deon Fourie, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and Andre Esterhuizen.

Erasmus installed a new front row, new halves and a new back three, and was forced into a late change when World Cup winner Canan Moodie had to be replaced by eight-cap winger Ethan Hooker. That meant eight of the XV and 13 of the 23 had less than 10 caps each.

“I don’t think the crowd was happy at the end but I think South Africa understands what we tried to do in this game,” Erasmus said.

“In the past I felt if we made four changes people would ask, ‘What are you doing?’ But I feel the interaction between us and the supporters — through the media — gives us a togetherness and people know what we are trying to do. That’s something that’s changed over the years.

“It’s the crowd believing in the team and the team believing in South Africa, because they could easily have gone against us with those easy tries we gave away.

“If we lose the knives will be out. But for me the most important thing is learning about the players. If we had lost this game I think there would be some of the crowd who would understand what we tried to do, but luckily we won.”

Erasmus said the lessons from the game outweighed the milestones.

“Sometimes we must put our personal goals to one side of how many games you’ve won in a row or even putting winning this championship on the line so that you can know who can do what,” he said.

“If you don’t make those calls you would never know. When do you do it? Are you always going to do it when you play a team that’s not of this caliber — because I think they are a great team. That’s how you find out.

“It’s tense, there’s pressure, there’s a crowd who’ve bought tickets because they want to watch this game. They don’t even know the players so well because they’re not even settled test match players.”

Ultimately, South Africa remained on top of the Southern Hemisphere conference on points difference from New Zealand.

“It’s much nicer when you win and you learn than when you lose and you learn,” Erasmus said.

“For those guys to feel the crowd going quiet when it’s not going so well. That’s the only way we can ever learn. We learned a lot about some players — not that they are not good enough — but that there’s a lot of work to be done.”

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