Erasmus delivers fitness update on the all-important Cheslin Kolbe
South Africa boss Rassie Erasmus expects wizard winger Cheslin Kolbe to be back in full training by Monday, adding that he is nowhere near contemplating calling up a fourth scrum-half to replace the injured Herschel Jantjies.
“Cheslin has that ankle injury that he picked up against Italy, which meant he wasn’t available for the last game. He is still nursing that but we are hopeful that he will be training fully on Monday,” explained Erasmus. “There’s a very good chance that he will be available – I would say 80 to 90 per cent.
“Herschel did a little light hamstring strain but he finished the (Canada) game. At this stage, it is precautionary but it’s also one of those where we are a little bit nervous. We only have three scrum-halves here so we want to make sure that he rather has more recovery time. So, hopefully on Monday he is also ready to go.
“Herschel won’t go home – it’s definitely not that bad an injury. It’s not even a grade one. Cheslin would have been a nice option. But we have got good scrum-halves, and I know Ruan Pienaar is currently playing very well back home.
“The difficult thing for the guys who were in our mix in South Africa is that there is no Currie Cup rugby now, whereas the PRO14 guys are actually playing now. The guys abroad are playing now – that’s why it was so easy to get Damian Willemse in, as he was playing for Saracens.
(Continue reading below…)
“Thomas du Toit was training with Toulouse, so they were in competition. But we are really far from going to a fourth-choice scrum-half at this stage.”
The Springboks played their last pool match versus the Canadians on Tuesday, giving them a 12-break before their October 20 quarter-final versus the Pool A winner in Tokyo. It’s a lengthy lay-off Erasmus has every confidence his squad will put to good use.
“We’ve been in this situation a couple of times in the last 18 months, like after the New Zealand game in Wellington, before going to Argentina. We stayed over in Wellington before we flew to Salta (Argentina) – so we assimilated this, as we knew that something like this can happen.
“Next week, from Tuesday, we will have a normal week, once we know who our opponents are. They had two days to enjoy themselves and Japan. The butterflies and nerves will set in once we know who our opponents are. The good thing was to switch off. You could see in the training session, in the first five to 10 minutes, they were still switched off a bit.
'Never once in its 32-year history has a fixture been cancelled and it has opened a Pandora’s Box of issues that may yet come back to bite the organisers.'
– RugbyPass columnist @OwainJTJones on the unprecedented turn of events in Japan #rwc2019 https://t.co/CVDyhNRbIF
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) October 10, 2019
“I don’t think you can get much fitter, faster, quicker or tougher physically in the next three weeks. Certainly, your conditioning can drop standards if you slack off a little bit. A lot of it, I believe, is mental – it’s upstairs. My previous experience in 1999, when I played, and 2011, when I coached, when we lost those games, I thought it was all mental – because it wasn’t a physical thing.
“It’s a lot to do with (asking) ‘how do you handle the pressure? What is pressure?’ And ‘how can you transfer the pressure from your team on to them?’ And there, a lot of things play a role. If you play Japan, you’ve got a lot of pressure because it’s a home crowd. Those kinds of things we are talking about, and it will play a massive role.”
Now that they are entering the knockout stages, will Erasmus change tactics in any way from previous World Cups with the Boks? “Tactically, I can only speak out of previous World Cups that I’ve seen… in 1995, it was totally different rugby, and it was (decided by a) drop goal.
View this post on Instagram
A sad end to Fiji’s Rugby World Cup today. As always they remain a fan favourite. #rwc2019 #RugbyWorldCup
“In 1999, a drop goal from (Stephen) Larkham. We had a red card from a previous game that cost us, so when we were behind on the scoreboard in the rain in the semi-final. We couldn’t actually draw the game because we would have lost after extra time because of the red card.
“So, discipline will be really important in the next three games. We haven’t had any cards, which is great for us. In 2011, we struggled with (David) Pocock at the breakdown and we couldn’t get that across to the referee – we didn’t have that ability on the field to change that specific situation.
“We have spoken a lot about role-playing with the things we are struggling with on the field, which we feel is maybe not the correct thing happening on the field. We are putting players in specific situations to try to overcome those things and, so far, it’s working.
“It definitely didn’t work in the New Zealand game but we took our lessons out of that one and, so far, it’s been going better.”
WATCH: Conor O’Shea on how the cancellation versus New Zealand has hit Italy hard
Comments on RugbyPass
Ever so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
24 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
24 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
24 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
24 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
9 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
9 Go to commentsAI is only as good as the information put in, the nuances of the sport, what you see out the corner of the eye, how you sum up in a split second the situation, yes the AI is a tool but will not help win games, more likely contribute to a loss, Rugby Players are not robots, all AI can do if offer a solution not the solution. AI will effect many sports, help train better golfers etc.
45 Go to commentsIt couldn’t have been Ryan Crotty. He wasn’t selected in either World Cup side - they chose Money Bill instead. And Money Bill only cared about himself, and that manager he had, not the team.
28 Go to comments