On Saturday (16/8), the Boks slumped to a 38-22 defeat at Ellis Park in Johannesburg, despite leading Joe Schmidt’s Wallabies 22-0 after just 17 minutes. It was the first time this season that the back-to-back world champions faced a Tier 1 nation.

The Wallabies came into the clash fresh off a 2-1 Test series defeat to the British & Irish Lions – a series they might have won with a bit more luck, especially in the second Test in Melbourne.

Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu. Photo: SA Rugby

While it is far from panic stations for the Springboks, there are certainly alarm bells, and Erasmus and his technical team need to find solutions ahead of what has become a crunch game in the Mother City.

Erasmus has long been known for planning ahead, and going into the Test in Green Point was no exception. But the former Springbok captain, after the match, admitted that they may need to rethink their strategy as they look to bounce back.

“We actually already picked next week’s team, but we’ve always said that if we lose momentum or don’t play well, things can change – and we did both today.

“We lost momentum, and we played badly. The players already know who was meant to start next week, but after our chat in the change room, that team will probably change a little bit. We want to give guys like Ethan Hooker, Canan Moodie, and Krappies (Morné van den Berg) a start, but we’ll have to rethink things.”

Erasmus admitted that the Boks were both outsmarted and out-muscled by a Wallabies outfit on an upward trajectory under Schmidt.

Rassie Erasmus. Photo: Morgan Piek

“I don’t think it was just a case of us being tactically outsmarted – they also physically dominated us. And the interesting thing is, the longer the game went on, the stronger they got. They’re supposed to struggle at altitude, but it just shows what Joe is building there. He’s got a bunch of guys really believing in each other. They grew stronger as the game went on, and we compounded it with errors.

“So yes, next week’s team was already announced internally, but we’ll review tonight. We won’t be going to bed early. 

“The saddest thing is that they got five points, and we didn’t even fight back to at least take a bonus point away. Right now we’re on zero and they’re on five. We’ll see what happens between New Zealand and Argentina, but the reality is – there’s no way to sugarcoat it, we were really dog s**t on the day.”

Kurt-Lee Arendse. Photo: Morgan Piek

The All Blacks went on to claim a 41-24 win against the Pumas of Argentina at Estadio Mario Alberto Kempes in Córdoba.

Last week, the Springbok team was named on Monday, but ahead of the Cape Town Test the announcement will only be made on Tuesday (19/8).

OFM Sport/Morgan Piek cvs