Rassie Erasmus explains unprecedented Springbok move in Australia defeat
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Rassie Erasmus has revealed the thinking behind the remarkable decision to send all eight Springbok replacements onto the field at the same time during their dramatic 42-38 defeat to Australia.
South Africa’s entire bench appeared together in the 47th minute in Perth, with Malcolm Marx, Ox Nché, Wilco Louw, Lood de Jager, Jasper Wiese, Morné van den Berg, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and Quan Horn all entering the contest.
It was an extraordinary move even by Erasmus’ standards, but the Springbok boss has confirmed it wasn’t something his coaching staff had planned before the game.
Instead, Erasmus had initially been waiting for an attacking scrum to introduce his fresh forwards.
That opportunity simply wasn’t arriving.
“No, [we were] reacting to the situation,” Erasmus explained.
“I mean, when you put a whole bench on, you were hoping to get a scrum here and there, but it was like 60 (was actually 47) minutes, and we didn’t have a scrum on our ball.
“In the second half we were planning, I’ll be honest with you, to put our big boys on, who were fresh, at the next scrum, our ball.
“But the scrums didn’t happen, didn’t happen, didn’t happen.”
With Australia taking control of the contest, Erasmus decided there was little value in waiting any longer.
The Wallabies had led 24-17 at half-time and were beginning to pull clear, leaving the Springboks desperately searching for something capable of changing the direction of the game.
“So after they scored another try, we decided, ‘Okay, we’ll have to roll the dice now. They’re 20 points up. Something has to change the momentum in the game.’
“So, not pre-planned.”
The mass substitution gave South Africa considerably more experience on the field, with several members of the group that had recently helped the Springboks claim a 3-1 Greatest Rivalry Series victory over the All Blacks introduced together.
It wasn’t enough to complete the comeback.
Australia eventually opened up a 42-17 advantage before South Africa scored 21 unanswered points to reduce the deficit to just four, despite the Wallabies being reduced to 11 players during a chaotic closing period.
While Erasmus was disappointed with the result, he believes facing an improving Australian side in Perth could still prove useful with the 2027 Rugby World Cup on the horizon.
“If we pull this through, I’ll sit here and say, ‘Shit, we learned a lot about our players again tonight, about tight situations,’” he said.
“If I say it when we lose, it’s a cliché. But the matter of fact is Australia is a good team and they’ve definitely improved a lot since Les has been there.
“They play at home. They’re the World Cup hosts next year.
“We might strike them in a vital playoff game, and it’s nice to have a taste of them tonight.”
Erasmus stopped short of falling back on the familiar idea of taking lessons from a defeat, instead describing the experience as valuable preparation for what the Springboks could encounter when they return to Australia next year.
“I’m not going to say ‘lessons learned’, but I think what happened tonight was a valuable experience.”
