Coach Rassie Erasmus says the Springboks won’t be treating the Nations Championship as a tournament.
The 12 teams are split into northern and southern hemisphere groups of six teams each, with total log points to decide the final standings and the fixtures for the finals weekend at Twickenham – first-placed northern hemisphere team versus first-placed southern hemisphere team, all the way through to sixth versus sixth.
But Erasmus insists the Boks will not chase bonus points at the expense of their core objective.
“We just want to win every match,” he said on Tuesday. “I don’t think we really see this as a competition. We see it as the next Test match, then the next Test match, and then the next Test match.
“We just want to try to win every match, and build squad depth and character. We want to have a playing style that everybody is used to when we get to the World Cup.
“So we’re doing things how we do it in Springbok rugby.”
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The world champions kick off their campaign against England at Ellis Park next Saturday before facing Scotland at Loftus and Wales at Kings Park.
“We want to beat them and I think they’ll want to do the same to us,” said Erasmus. “Going for bonus points, I don’t know if that’s really Test match rugby.”
Erasmus said he would be satisfied if the Springboks “won by one point and we played the rugby we want to try and play, which makes our fans and ourselves proud”.
Photo: Steve Haag/Gallo Images
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Coach Rassie Erasmus says the Springboks won’t be treating the Nations Championship as a tournament.
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