Rassie Erasmus has given his Springboks a clean bill of health after their commanding 43-0 victory over Wales at Kings Park.
The injury-free outcome is one of the biggest positives from another convincing Test performance, in tricky conditions.
The world champions ran in seven unanswered tries on a heavy and greasy Kings Park surface to back up last November’s 73-0 rout of Wales in Cardiff, but Erasmus was just as pleased to report that every player had come through the match unscathed.
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“No injuries. I think it’s the first time after a game that we can say no injuries, so that’s good,” said the Bok coach.
Erasmus also welcomed the response from his pack after identifying the scrum as an area that needed improvement following last week’s Test.
“We weren’t really on our game when it came to the scrums last week. This week I thought it was good.
“Our maul-stopping and our own mauling were good. That was something we wanted to get right. So we did have a lot of fixes and I’m happy about that.”
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The Springboks’ forward dominance laid the platform for another comfortable victory, while their defence kept Wales scoreless for the full 80 minutes.
Erasmus believes the performance showed clear progress, even if there are still areas that need attention.
“It’s difficult to say how much we’ve learned, but it’s a Test match and I think a lot of guys came through it with tick marks.
“In this game we learned that our defence was better than last week – we worked really hard on that – and our set-piece was really solid, but then we also had a lot of handling errors.”
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The Bok coach added that several players looked more comfortable under the demands of Test rugby after gaining another opportunity in the green and gold.
“I think some guys handled the pressure of Test match rugby a little bit better than we did last week.”
The Boks get some time off to rest and recuperate before preparing for a tough assignment away to Los Pumas in Buenos Aires on 8 August.
Photo: Steve Haag/Gallo Images
The post Boks get all-clear after Wales whitewash appeared first on SA Rugby magazine.
Rassie Erasmus has given his Springboks a clean bill of health after their commanding 43-0 victory over Wales at Kings Park.
The post Boks get all-clear after Wales whitewash appeared first on SA Rugby magazine. Read More
