‘We’ve Been Here Before’: How A Bitter 2025 Ghost Fueled Rassie’s Halftime Reality Check
Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus said memories of last year’s defeat at Ellis Park helped inspire his side to a seven-tries-to-three, 45-21 (half-time 17-14) victory over England in the inaugural Nations Championship match at the same venue on Saturday.
Eleven months ago, the Springboks surrendered a 22-0 lead against Australia before slumping to a 38-22 defeat. This time, however, there was to be no repeat.
The Boks crossed for three tries to race into a 17-0 lead over England inside the opening 12 minutes, but their advantage was cut to just three points by half-time as the visitors dominated the second quarter.
“We did have flashbacks to last year. It’s easy to say after you win that you learn from your mistakes, but the chat at half-time was definitely: ‘Boys, we’ve been here before and we know how it feels if we don’t rectify things in the second half,'” Erasmus said.
“A lot of the things that Tony (Brown) and Stokke (Mzwandile Stick) said were spot on. Obviously, we had to be really honest with one another at half-time, but luckily we had that game last year and we could rectify things during the half-time chat.”
The Springboks also had to overcome the late withdrawals of captain Siya Kolisi (hamstring) and Eben Etzebeth (concussion) on the eve of the match. Their absences handed Paul de Villiers a debut at flanker, while Cameron Hanekom earned a second Test cap. Pieter-Steph du Toit shifted to lock in a late positional switch.
Erasmus admitted that, while the situation was challenging, it also presented an opportunity.
“Sometimes it takes a lot of courage to slot players in and out. It’s tough not to play Siya when Paul is coming through and Marco (van Staden) is coming through, and you ask yourself where you’re going to play them if Siya is always fit.
“But we have a saying: ‘It will come to us’ [blooding players]. We believe in that — that it will come to us. Certainly, though, we have to make big calls this year to be 100 percent sure when we go into the World Cup next year that we’ve tested our depth. Today, destiny took charge of that and it worked out the right way.
“It’s not a nice thing to lose two players who sit on either side of me (as the captain and the most-capped player in the team photo), but you have to make the best of it.
“The average age of the team with them in it was 31, and after the other boys came in it dropped to 27. You have to see the positives in that. Paul will certainly learn from that experience, and so will Cameron (Hanekom) and Pietie (Pieter-Steph du Toit), who captained the team and played at lock, a position he hasn’t played for a long time. So we’re happy.”
Du Toit said he was unfazed by the late positional change.
“The system is set in stone, and if you buy into the system and understand the system, the system will take care of the player. I think that’s the nice thing about us at the moment — we’ve got a really good system.”
Erasmus revealed that Ox Nche is likely to miss next Saturday’s match against Scotland after suffering a knee injury early in the game, while Kolisi and Etzebeth will continue to be monitored. Andre Esterhuizen, who left the field after taking a blow to the neck in a tackle, will also be assessed.
Despite the setbacks, Erasmus was pleased with how his side adapted, particularly given the injury crisis at lock, where eight players were unavailable for the England Test.
“I’d have liked to have given Riley (Norton) a run here, but then Ben-Jason (Dixon) came on and had a really good impact. We were also able to mix things up with guys playing at six, seven and eight, with Jasper (Wiese), Cameron and Marco, and all in all I thought it was an above-average performance.”
