Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus said that the memories of a former defeat at Ellis Park helped power his side to a seven-try to three, 45-21 (halftime 17-14) victory over England in an inaugural Nations Championship match at the same venue on Saturday.
Eleven months ago, the Boks surrendered a 22-0 lead over Australia on the way to a 38-22 defeat, but this time there was no mistake.
The Boks scored three tries in surging into a 17-0 lead over England after just 12 minutes, but led by only three points at halftime as the visitors took control of the second quarter.
“We did have flashbacks to last year, and it’s easy to say after you win that you learn from mistakes, but the chat at halftime was definitely: ‘boys, we’ve been here before, and we know how it feels if we don’t rectify things in the second half’,” said Erasmus.
“A lot of things that Tony (Brown) and Stokke (Mzwandile Stick) said were spot on. Obviously, we had to be really honest with one another at halftime, but luckily we had that game last year, and we could rectify things during the halftime chat.”
The Boks also had to overcome the late withdrawal of captain Siya Kolisi (hamstring) and Eben Etzebeth (head knock) on the eve of the match, forcing the call-up of Paul de Villiers at flanker for his debut and handing a second cap to Cameron Hanekom. Pieter-Steph du Toit moved to lock in a positional switch.
Erasmus admitted that as hard as the challenge was, it had its positive side: “Sometimes it takes a lot of courage to slot players in and out. It’s tough not to play Siya when Paul is coming through, and Marco (van Staden) is coming through, and you ask yourself where you are going to play them [if Siya is always fit].
“But we have a saying, ‘it will come to us’ [blooding players]. We believe in that, that it will come to us, but certainly we have to make big calls this year to be 100 per cent sure when we go into the World Cup next year that we’ve tested our depth, and today destiny took charge of that, and it worked out the right way.
“It’s not a nice thing to lose two players who sit to either side of me (as the captain and the most capped player on the team photo), but you have to make the best of it.
“The average age of the team with them in it was 31, and after the other boys came in, the average age was 27, and you must see the positives in that. Paul will certainly learn from that experience, and so will Cameron (Hanekom) and Pietie (Pieter-Steph du Toit), being captain and playing four lock, which he hasn’t played for a long time, so we’re happy.”
Du Toit explained that he was unfazed by the late change: “The system is set in stone, and if you buy into the system and understand the system, the system will take care of the player. I think that’s the nice thing about us at the moment is that we’ve got a really good system.”
Erasmus said that Ox Nche (knee) was likely to miss Saturday’s match against Scotland after coming off in the early stages of the game, while Etzebeth and Kolisi would be monitored. Andre Etserhuizen, who was replaced following a blow to the neck in a tackle, would also be assessed.
Erasmus made the most of the challenges, although injuries at lock, a list of eight currently sidelined or unavailable for the England match, had been a challenge.
“I’d like to have given Riley (Norton) a run here, but then Ben-Jason (Dixon) comes on and has a really good impact, and we could mingle it a bit with guys playing six, seven and eight with Jasper (Wiese) and Cameron and Marco and, all in all, I thought it was an above average performance.”