Australia and New Zealand plans out the window – Erasmus

Following the Springboks’ loss to Argentina in Mendoza on Saturday, coach Rassie Erasmus has stated that plans to test out new players and combinations against Australia and New Zealand have “gone out the window”

After the upcoming weekend of rest, the Boks travel to Brisbane to play Australia (September 8th) followed by a trip to Wellington the next week to face the All Blacks.

Erasmus’ original intentions had been to use the Australasian tour as somewhat of a “tester” for the 2019 World Cup. However their woeful 32-19 loss in Mendoza has forced reconsideration from the management.

“The frustrating thing is that we had a specific plan for Australia and New Zealand and that’s out the window now,” Erasmus said.

“We have to win at all costs now. We thought if we win this one we could make a few changes and test a few players, which people don’t always want to hear.

“Now it’s totally different … we have to go over there and win at all costs.”

Erasmus did not rule out the possibly of players being dropped, expressing frustration at his side’s inability to finish off attacking opportunities.

“Whatever the consequences are for this, if it’s players getting dropped or we must look at ourselves, we can’t play like this,” he said.

“I don’t have the answers right now. I thought we were in a great space. I know it’s not the travelling … in the second half we outplayed them, and we were the fresher team.”

“We had so many opportunities and it looked like we thought we were playing club rugby and that we expected more to come. In Test rugby you must score those points.

“Nothing happened today that we didn’t expect. We had a specific plan and we couldn’t handle it. As coaches we must look at ourselves and we must find better plans. The players must execute the plans better.”