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Rassie addresses Boks' talk that he regards as 'stupid'

(Photo by Clement Mahoudeau/Gallo Images/Getty Images)

Rassie Erasmus is doing his best to dampen expectations as the Springboks prepare to launch their bid to retain the Rugby World Cup in France and insists it would be “stupid” to consider them favourites heading into the tournament which kicks off in September.

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As the reigning Cup champions prepare for their opening Rugby Championship match against Australia at home on 8 July, Erasmus, SA Rugby’s Director of Rugby, is even talking up the chances of the Wallabies under new coach Eddie Jones despite their poor record in South Africa. He said :” We’re under no illusions (how competitive this World Cup is going to be) You have the Wallabies under Eddie and the All Blacks present. Ireland are ranked No 1 in the world, France are second.

“Even through to Scotland, who are No 5, it would be stupid to argue that we’re carrying the favourite tag. We definitely don’t.

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“We’re not even going to argue in that direction because there would be no sense doing that. Yes, the expectations are definitely higher. We feel it on our shoulders. The nice thing about this group is that we’ve been together for a really long time.

“We’re very realistic and don’t get dragged into what other people are saying. We know, realistically, that in 2019 we were not exactly favourites. If anything, we were underdogs.

“We’re world champions and have to try and defend that title. We believe we have as good a chance as anyone to complete that objective. People definitely expect us to go to World Cup and get the job done. We’re certainly going to try.”

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The Springbok management are planning a split-squad system again for the Rugby Championship, although head coach Jacques Nienaber is adamant he is not operating an A- or B-team system.

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“It will not be an ‘A’ and a ‘B’ side. It will be similar to what we did in 2019. If you look at the team that played against Australia then, who started that game, I think a lot of people at the time thought that it would be an A and a B side,” he said.

“Beast Mtawarira started against Australia and he started in the World Cup final. Bongi Mbonambi started against Australia and he started in the World Cup final. Lood de Jager and Eben Etzebeth started, Pieter-Steph du Toit started. We’ll probably do the same. It will be a side that we believe will be good enough to beat Australia here at Loftus.”

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4 Comments
B
Big A 497 days ago

why is the schedulling so frickin
stupid _ we wait all year to
play internationals and then we have to play 2 games in six days whilst traversing the world - utter insanity -

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Bull Shark 1 hour ago
Rassie Erasmus' Boks selection policy is becoming bizarre

To be fair, the only thing that drives engagement on this site is over the top critiques of Southern Hemisphere teams.


Or articles about people on podcasts criticizing southern hemisphere teams.


Articles regarding the Northern Hemisphere tend to be more positive than critical. I guess to also rile up kiwis and Saffers who seem to be the majority of followers in the comments section. There seems to be a whole department dedicated to Ireland’s world ranking news.


Despite being dialled into the Northern edition - I know sweet fokall about what’s going on in France.


And even less than fokall about what’s cutting in Japan - which has a fast growing, increasingly premium League competition emerging.


And let’s not talk about the pacific. Do they even play rugby Down there.


Oh and the Americas. I’ve read more articles about a young, stargazing Welshman’s foray into NFL than I have anything related to either the north and south continents of the Americas.


I will give credit that the women’s game is getting decent airtime. But for the rest and the above; it’s just pathetic coming from a World Rugby website.


Just consider the innovation emerging in Japan with the pedigree of coaches over there.


There’s so much good we could be reading.


Instead it’s unimaginative “critical for the sake of feigning controversial”. Which is lazy, because in order to pull that off all you need to be really good at is:


1. Being a doos;

2. Having an opinion.


No prior experience needed.


Which is not journalism. That’s like all or most of us in the comments section. People like Finn (who I believe is a RP contributor).


Anyway. Hopefully it will get better. The game is growing and the interest in the game is growing. Maybe it will attract more qualified journalists over time.

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