Share
19th September 2023
11:04am BST
Rassie Erasmus pictured during a South Africa training at the 2019 World Cup. (Photo by Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile)[/caption]
"I was thinking about that when I read a few things on social media. "A few of my friends said that Ireland is our bogey team, but the World Cup is Ireland’s bogey competition."Erasmus then went on to speak about how his side had created history, in 2019, by losing their opening pool match and going on to win the competition. He noted that New Zealand, who lost against France in their opening match at this tournament, will be looking to emulate that Springbok achievement. "I really think history, it might be nice to make it a sensational thing, but the belief from within the Irish team and from the South African team - at the end of the day, it's what those 33 players and management believe," he added. During that same Erasmus press conference, he confirmed that outhalf Handré Pollard would not be in contention for Saturday's game, despite him being called up for injured hooker Malcom Marx. On how he and Jacques Nienaber might split the South Africa replacements bench, in terms of forwards and backs, he said, "I don't think we can go 8:0 [forwards:backs], that is a bit extreme. But seven-one is definitely an option... "The six-two a couple of years back was new to people and now a lot of teams are doing six-two. If you go seven-one you have to have players like Kwagga Smith, someone that is used to playing at the sevens level against Fiji. Then again, you have guys like Johnny Sexton who can exploit it when you get an injury early in the game."
Explore more on these topics:
