Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus and SA ‘A’ coach Mzwandile Stick were pleased with their teams’ victories as they registered impressive wins at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Gqeberha on Saturday, but said there was hard work ahead to reach their desired standards before the Nations Championship kicks off in two weeks.
The Springboks registered a comprehensive 80-31 victory against the Barbarians, while the SA ‘A’ side recorded a 40-0 victory against Zimbabwe, but both Erasmus and Stick said the performances were far from perfect.
“Our discipline wasn't great, and they (the Barbarians) scored tries in quick succession, so yellow cards were not ideal,” said Erasmus.
“But we have to remind ourselves that it's been six or seven months since we’ve played together, and some guys were new in the mix, while we also didn’t know when the DHL Stormers or Vodacom Bulls players would be available at some stage, which are all aspects we have to keep in mind.
“To score 80 points is nice, but the Barbarians were thrown together quite late, and had only three training sessions, which makes them difficult to analyse. They scored four or five great tries, so we need to eliminate those defensive lapses and be better as a unit when we play against England.”
Erasmus admitted he was concerned about Franco Mostert’s injury, which forced the Bok lock to leave the field: “I'm worried about his ankle. He’ll go for scans tomorrow, so hopefully it's not too bad.”
'LESSONS LEARNED'
Springbok captain Siya Kolisi echoed Erasmus’ sentiments that there were positives and some big learnings from their opening game of the season.
“I thought a lot of what we wanted to get through, we did, but also, when things didn't work, and we went against the plan, we learned lessons there,” said Kolisi.
“I always have to watch the game again to get a good assessment about things, but I already know some of the mistakes we made and the areas we need to fix. There were opportunities where I thought we could have controlled things better.”
Stick also had mixed feelings about the SA ‘A’ team’s performance against Zimbabwe and said: “We knew it was going to be a big challenge because the majority of our players have never played together, so it was a new team, and Zimbabwe tried to challenge us by keeping ball in hand and playing direct rugby – I enjoyed the way they played.
“That said, for us, the goal was to see whether the players could execute what we've been working on over the past two weeks, and it was sometimes frustrating when the points weren't coming.
“In the first half, we were unlucky, with two tries disallowed – once where a player went into touch, and another when a player was slightly in front of the kick. But from my side, the way the guys stayed in the fight, even when we were under pressure, was great, and we managed to keep a clean sheet.”
SA ‘A’ captain Vincent Tshituka also spoke highly about Zimbabwe, who will participate in the 2027 Rugby World Cup in Australia: “We played against a desperate side, and we expected that. We knew the Zimbabwe players would be motivated and would want to prove a point against world-class opposition, and it showed.”
© SA Rugby