Maintaining the furious intensity they showed against the All Blacks is vital if the resurgent Springboks want to beat a difficult Australian team in Port Elizabeth on Saturday, Bok coach Rassie Erasmus said.
The Boks are leaving nothing to chance for their Rugby Championship clash against the Wallabies, which is expected to draw a sellout 46,000 crowd to Port Elizabeth’s Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium.
Following their heroic win over the All Backs in their previous game, Erasmus says his players must remain grounded and focused on the task at hand.
“We do not want the guys to fly too high and think they are this world team that can beat anyone because we beat the All Blacks in our last game.
“The players must be right because we are playing a difficult Australian team.
“Keeping up that intensity is always a challenge.
“You know one can get overexcited, not looking at why we won, what we did well, and what not so well.
“That is why we have come in early to Port Elizabeth on Friday to make sure that we start our preparations and ensure we are focused as we were for the All Blacks game.”
The Bok coach is eager to get one over Australia after his men went down to the Wallabies in Brisbane earlier in the season.
“We are playing an Australian team we lost to last time and that is a bad thing.
“The Boks want to rectify that, first of all.
“I do not think we can read too much into Australia’s loss to Argentina last week.
“We have lost to both those teams this year.
“A year out from the World Cup, teams are trying and testing a few things at the cost of a loss sometimes.
“Australia are a team on the up, even if they were not so sharp the previous week.”
Erasmus said beating the All Blacks had given his team a massive boost.
“The players know we have to go through some growing pains before the World Cup if we want to be competitors.
“We did experiment a little bit against Australia and Argentina, and it cost us.
“The pressure was on the Bok coaching staff for the players to believe in our long-term vision.
“We [beat] New Zealand and [our] belief will be a bit more with the World Cup approaching.
“We talk about the World Cup, but there are two big Test matches coming up for us over the next two weeks, against Australia and New Zealand.
“Now the belief is there that it will be easy to get the players up for these games.
“I do not think we are in with a chance to win the Rugby Championship.
“I am pretty sure New Zealand will beat Argentina away from home.
“For us to keep growing and improving is the big thing for us in the next two weeks.”
Erasmus was relieved and proud his team had beaten New Zealand in New Zealand.
“When we started the planning for that match‚ we said we must try to beat them at home because we were at the back of two losses (Argentina and Australia) and lost some belief.
“So‚ we targeted the New Zealand game to say: ‘Can we turn things around and become contenders during the World Cup?’
“We could have lost, but it gives us confidence because no-one beat them here.”
Meanwhile, uncapped Blitzbok star Ruhan Nel, Vincent Koch (prop), Sbu Nkosi (wing), Lionel Mapoe (centre) and Ivan van Zyl (scrumhalf) have been added to the squad for their final two home matches against the Wallabies and the All Blacks.