Rassie pleased with SA A 'gutsy' performance

South African Rugby’s Director of Rugby Rassie Erasmus was pleased with the SA A side’s win over the British and Irish Lions, even though it wasn’t impressive.

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The 17-13 victory set the stage for an enthralling test series, especially as the side was a virtual test side and the Boks were hampered by a lack of preparation because of a Covid outbreak in the camp over the past few weeks.

With head coach Jacques Nienaber still stuck in Johannesburg in quarantine after testing positive for Covid, the team had little time to prepare but put in a spirited performance, even though they did fade as the game went on.

Erasmus said they took a lot out of the game and they would be ready when the test series arrives in just more than a week’s time.

“It was what we thought it would be. We knew we would get tired because we only had two practice sessions and were in our hotel rooms for more than a week. We knew the guys would get tired,” he said.

“The two yellow cards when we were down to 13 men also made us struggle. Overall just to concede 13 points wasn’t too bad. I don’t think it was a brilliant game, but it was a very physical, intense game - what we need before the test series begins. Overall there are not many injuries.

We will get a whole lot of guys back.

“People know the talent of guys like Bongi Mbonambi, Frans Malherbe, RG Snyman, Duane Vermeuelen, Lood de Jager. There are a lot of guys, Frans Steyn, Handre Pollard and Makazole Mapimpi. There are a lot of guys who need to come back into the mix, but tonight there were a lot of guys who put their hands up. We didn’t play well, but we played with guts.”

Erasmus also praised the intent of the squad in keeping the Lions out from their tryline for several periods in the game.

“We got what we expected. Physical, really slick handling and confrontations. That is what we needed and that is what they also received from our side. From where I stood, it looked really intense and physical.

“When we had 13 men at one stage, it didn’t help but to only keep them to 13 points, that was pretty okay. The defence was good. They had two tries that could have been awarded that could have gone either way. It went our way so I think we were fortunate.

“There were a lot of guys who didn’t play today that could make the test squad, but the guys who played, put up their hand - maybe not with silky skills, but with intent.”

While there was a lot of hard work ahead, Erasmus believes the guts shown by the players will hold them in good stead for the next weeks.

“I don’t want to run away with emotions. It was tough. Jacques was our head coach and our defence coach. He was coaching us virtually - physically virtually and he can only join us in two days time. Felix (Jones) is our attack coach and he is coaching us virtually from Johannesburg at this stage. The players were coached online and we only had two training sessions.

“We knew we were going to run out of steam but sometimes in situations like this, it makes you a little bit tighter. The guys played with a lot of heart. If that is the case you can fix the tactical and little things, but we know heart alone won’t win us the series which starts next weekend. 

We are proud of that but we have a lot of technical and tactical work that we must get right.”

The Springboks - disguised as SA A - are due to play the Vodacom Bulls in a warm-up game on Saturday after the British and Irish Lions turned down an extra SA A match. The Lions will face the DHL Stormers on Saturday as planned in their original itinerary.