Rassie Erasmus explains emptying the Bok bench on 47 minutes in Perth

Rassie Erasmus insisted South Africa’s unprecedented decision to unload their entire bench in the 47th minute against Australia was a reaction to events rather than a move that had been mapped out before kick-off.

The Wallabies led 24-17 at the break and stretched that advantage to 42-17 after 65 minutes. While the Springboks mounted a late fightback and closed to within four points, Erasmus said the decision to deploy all eight replacements at once was driven by the flow of the match.

“No, [we were] reacting to the situation,” said Erasmus. “I mean, when you put a whole bench on, you were hoping to get a scrum here and there, but it was like 60 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.

“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.”

Erasmus sent on Malcolm Marx, Ox Nche, Wilco Louw, Lood de Jager, Jasper Wiese, Morne van den Berg, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and Quan Horn together in the 47th minute as South Africa chased a way back into the contest.

Although the gamble ultimately ended in a 42-38 defeat, the two-time World Cup-winning coach argued there was still value in the experience of being pushed hard by an improving Wallabies side.

“If we pull this through, I’ll sit here and say, ‘Shit, we learned a lot about our players again tonight, about tight situations,'” Erasmus 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.

“So next year when we play them, we’ll know a little bit more about each other.

“I’m not going to say ‘lessons learned’, but I think what happened tonight was a valuable experience.”

Erasmus was full of praise for Wallabies head coach Les Kiss and his predecessor, Joe Schmidt.

“I’m big friends with Joe and Les, and they’re great, detailed guys. With Les being at Ulster, I know the Irish system is very technical…”

“It’s the small details they get right. The line-outs: they don’t make a mistake there. They always fill the field on defence. There are always numbers on their feet. I think the threat where we thought they would be really great was at the breakdown. I thought we nullified that in a big way.

“But they’re a really technically sharp, well-coached team. We normally find it difficult against a team that don’t miss their roles at the breakdown and stuff. So they’re difficult to play.”