South Africa’s Rassie Erasmus turns on the charm ahead of Test against Ireland

It’s the Irish media’s fault! Ask Rassie Erasmus or Eben Etzebeth and they’ll put you straight on the matter. A rivalry has been inflamed by words taken out of context, the tone misconstrued, humour overlooked or unappreciated.

Erasmus’s comments leaned more towards whimsical observation than admonition as the South African head coach fielded questions having announced the Springbok 23 for Saturday’s eagerly anticipated first Test at Loftus Versfeld.

A quick bit of team housekeeping first, reveals eight changes from South Africa’s 41-13 victory over Wales, four alterations — Willie Le Roux, Handre Pollard, Ox Nche and Kwagga Smith are promoted — to the run-on team which lost out to Ireland in a World Cup pool match, 20 World Cup winners in Saturday’s 23 and 12 of the team that started the final win over New Zealand.

The three Springboks who didn’t play in France are Gerhard Steenekamp (prop), Salmaan Moerat (secondrow) and Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu (utility back), all of whom are named on a bench that boasts a 6-2 split but may go to 7-1 depending on an unspecified injury issue, which Erasmus alluded towards the end of the briefing.

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But first, he was in vintage form — informative, entertaining, and colourful as he broached multiple topics. When asked whether remarks have ratcheted up the tension or discord, he replied: “I think the rivalry is more from their media side than from ours. I think sometimes maybe they don’t 100 per cent understand the South African sense of humour, why we find something funny, and sometimes it’s quoted out of context.

“From their side, they probably have unfinished business to try and get number one. We don’t talk like that. We analyse players, we see how they perform in the URC and European Cup, then pick our team from players we think can do the job for us. We train really hard. We try to stay in our reality, but our reality is we’re playing at home against a team that has beaten us. All the games were really close, they deserved all of those.

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“But it’s never, ‘we’ve got a score to settle.’ I’d rather take two World Cups and a British and Irish Lions series [win] and take the three losses [to Ireland in the last three matches between the countries]. But we never go out to lose, we definitely didn’t try to lose.”

He kept the light touch going when asked about whether Jacques Nienaber coaching at Leinster might have unlocked a few Boks’ secrets. “Yeah, definitely they will, no doubt, but Jacques phones me every night and tells [me] everything about Ireland. No, I’m joking.

“Look, rugby is a professional game. Certainly, he will implement things there that worked for us here. Some of them you can clearly see. Some of them are working, some of them are not working because players of countries and cultures are different, and coaches are different.”

Johnny Sexton’s name cropped up under the guise of asking Erasmus whether he’d noticed a change to the way that Ireland played since the outhalf’s retirement. He smiled: “The ref has got it much easier now. No, I’m joking. I always said when we played against Johnny, he so frustrated us but hell, it would be nice to be in his team.

“But this young fly-half [Jack Crowley] is not scared. He plays it on the gain line, he goes for the crosskick, [and] he doesn’t shy away from tackling. I’m not sure if they will put the small one from Munster, [Craig] Casey or Murr [Conor Murray] with him.

“Maybe Casey because Casey and him play together. At that age, you don’t feel the pressure of Test match rugby so much until you actually realise what you’re part of; sometimes that’s good. What has changed in their [Ireland’s] game? I think they even defend a little bit of Jacques Nienaber-style, a little bit. They are hard off the line, without a doubt.”

Erasmus is well versed in controlling temperature in advance of a match, understanding when to add a little heat or to turn down the flame if there is some singeing around the edges, all the while doing what he believes is best for his team. And that is why he commands fierce loyalty from the playing group. Saturday can’t come quickly enough.

South Africa: W Le Roux; C Kolbe, J Kriel, D de Allende, K-L Arendse; H Pollard, F de Klerk; O Nche, B Mbonambi, F Malherbe; F Mostert, E Etzebeth; S Kolisi (capt), P Steph du Toit, K Smith. Replacements: M Marx, G Steenekamp, V Koch, RG Snyman, S Moerat, M van Staden, G Williams, S Feinberg-Mngomezulu.

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