'The Irish maybe don't 100% understand the South African sense of humour'

THE LAUGHS CAME thick and fast as Rassie Erasmus fielded questions about facing Ireland in Pretoria this weekend.

It turns out you can add comedy to the Springboks boss’s list of talents. Several of his comments in the small press conference room at the Southern Sun hotel in Pretoria, where the teams will play on Saturday, had the room in stitches.

And yet, Erasmus knows that some of his words will get under Irish skin. Maybe not within Andy Farrell’s squad, but certainly among supporters.

The rivalry between these teams has exploded since Ireland gave the Boks a good beating in Dublin in 2017. Erasmus, who joined after that dark day, has been more than happy to stoke the fire. Not that he’s taking responsibility – he blames the Irish rugby media.

“I think the rivalry is more from their media side than from ours. I think sometimes maybe they don’t 100% understand the South African sense of humour, why we find something funny, and sometimes it’s quoted out of context,” said Erasmus today.

“So yes, they’re number two in the world, they’ve beaten us last time. We don’t see ourselves as underdogs, I don’t think they see themselves as underdogs and I think we’ll see two teams on Saturday who are really desperate to perform for their countries.”

While he’s not reaching unconvincingly for underdog status, Erasmus did try to play down any talk of South Africa having an advantage over others due to rugby being the national sport in a nation of 60 million people.

“Ireland is a country that is much smaller than us although people like to compare 60 million people with four million, but not all people play rugby in South Africa and not all 60 million follow rugby,” he said.

Erasmus in Pretoria today.

Ireland beat Erasmus’ Boks in Dublin in the autumn of 2022 and then again in the pool stage of last year’s World Cup.

They were two tight battles and clearly there is heat in the relationship now, but Rassie firmly rejected the notion that the Springboks have revenge on their mind. He said they don’t use that word and instead pointed to back-to-back World Cup victories as consolation for not beating Ireland.

“From their side, they probably have unfinished business to try and get number one,” said the Boks boss.

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“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.

“But it’s never ‘we’ve got a score to settle.’ I’d rather take a World Cup – two World Cups and a British & Irish Lions series – and take the three losses. But we never go out to lose, we definitely didn’t try to lose.”

This will be a different Ireland team to the one the Boks played against in France last year, especially at out-half given the retirement of Johnny Sexton after the World Cup.

Erasmus had words of praise for Jack Crowley and couldn’t resist a joke at Sexton’s expense.

“The ref has got it much easier now,” he said. “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. I guess I wanna say we have respect for him and how he plays, how he could command games and how he could command respect.

“But this young fly-half is not scared. He plays it on the gainline, he goes for the cross-kick, he doesn’t shy away from tackling.

“I’m not sure if they will put the small one from Munster… Casey or Murr 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.

Erasmus is unsure if Ireland will start Craig Casey or Conor Murray.

“What has changed in their game? I think they even defend a little bit Jacques Nienaber-style, a little bit. They are hard off the line, without a doubt.”

Speaking of Nienaber, it must be a little unsettling for Erasmus that his long-time right-hand man has just spent the past few months working closely with so many of Ireland’s key players at Leinster.

Erasmus thinks the Irish players will have greater insight into the Boks as a result, but doesn’t believe that Nienaber would give the Irishmen every single detail about the South Africans.

“Yeah, definitely they will, no doubt, but Jacques phones me every night and tells everything about Ireland,” said Erasmus. “No, I’m joking.

“Look, rugby is a professional game. Certainly, he will implement things there what 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 different countries and cultures are different, and coaches are different. When you’re in different counties and cultures, and I know from Munster, you didn’t always read body language and when you said something you’re not quite sure this guy gets what I’m trying to say.

“RG Snyman played for Munster. He’s now a Leinster boy. So nowadays what you see on television and if you follow teams on Twitter, they post all their drills on Twitter and you can see basically who is starting and who is wearing the big, those kind of things.

“One thing I can promise you, I will never put Jacques in a position where the people he is working with and the team he loves, which is Leinster currently, thinking he would in any way help us. But I also trust him not to tell them the name of moves and calls and those kind of things. I’m not worried about that.”

Erasmus named his Springboks matchday 23 to face Ireland today and though it includes a 6/2 bench, he suggested that he is still considering using a 7/1 bench on Saturday.

Erasmus with Jacques Nienaber.

Erasmus opted for that split against Ireland in the World Cup and again in the final against New Zealand.

“There are one or two niggles, so there’s a possibility for a 7/1 as well but we’ll look at that on Thursday and I don’t want to elaborate on that too much.”

And he also touched on the issue of altitude at Loftus Versfeld, where Leinster lost in the URC semi-finals against the Bulls, but where Glasgow earned the title the following weekend.

He said that altitude comes into play when teams aren’t fit enough. He expects that Ireland will be and having 10 days at altitude in nearby Johannesburg will help them.

Erasmus said the impact on kicking is also relevant.

“It really has a big effect and changes your distance. You can pass the ball further, kick it further, kick it higher, it definitely runs a little bit more. The ball travels to far and the kicking game is a big thing in Test rugby.

“But knowing Ireland and coaching there for two years, they’re very scientific about stuff like that. They will be doing their best so it doesn’t affect it.”