Rassie Erasmus wary of being on the wrong end of a history lesson

Springboks head coach Rassie Erasmus insists there’s no danger of any complacency as they go in pursuit of the win that will clinch back-to-back Rugby Championship titles.

South Africa thrashed Argentina 67-30 after a second-half surge in Durban last weekend and meet Los Pumas again in a top-versus-bottom clash on neutral ground at Twickenham’s Allianz Stadium in the final round of the competition on Saturday.

However, Erasmus is taking nothing for granted, especially since there have been numerous examples in Test rugby recently of big point swings from one week to another, and he hasn’t felt the need to keep his players’ feet on the ground.

“History has shown that when we lost 57-0 to New Zealand in 2017, the next weekend there was just one point in it at Newlands (24-25).

“We know how things can turn around. We lost to New Zealand by seven points in Auckland and the next week, we gave 40 to them.

“Luckily, it is not the players who are writing themselves up and who are making a fuss about themselves, it’s other people, and it’s great, we love the support and we appreciate the media and what they do.

“But the reality is we have to play against an Argentinian team that will be hurting. And we know when we have been hurting, we’ll pitch up the next week.

“And I also feel having players like Eben, Siya, Pieter-Steph, Ox … I can name a lot of really experienced guys, I don’t think we’ll fall into the trap of thinking (we’re perfect) all of a sudden.

“It was far from a perfect game (last week), 60 minutes into the game, the game was actually in the balance,” he added. “There were brilliant performances, but if we lose this game, it won’t be because we think we are the business; of that I will make sure of.”

Rugby Championship

P

W

L

D

PF

PA

PD

BP T

BP-7

BP

Total

1

South Africa

5

3

2

0

15

2

New Zealand

5

3

2

0

14

3

Australia

5

2

3

0

11

4

Argentina

5

2

3

0

9

Erasmus admits he would have liked to have rolled the dice a bit more in selection, rather than just making one change to his XV – Ox Nche coming back into the side at loosehead, but circumstances dictated otherwise.

“We are feeling for a few guys who can’t get an opportunity, just because it is really a bit of a short turnaround, and we had to get some clearance on a few injured players today, and we only really confirmed the team about an hour ago after the training session,” (13:30 BST, Tuesday).

Erasmus hasn’t been afraid to mix things up over the course of the Championship, as he looks to spread game time around and evolve the squad in the build-up to the 2027 World Cup.

None of the 36 players he has used this campaign have been on the pitch for the entire 400 minutes of the five rounds, while the Springboks’ tries have been spread around.

Looking at 2025 as a whole, it is impressive that 28 different Springbok players have crossed the whitewash. This compares to 19 different try-scorers for Australia and New Zealand this year and 18 from Argentina.

Using the midfield to highlight the point, Erasmus places a big emphasis on the interchangeability of combinations, while acknowledging it’s still a work in progress.

“Eventually, chopping and changing becomes normal and combinations start to click really fast, whether it is Damian (de Allende) and Canan (Moodie), Jesse (Kriel) and Canan, Gaza (Damian Willemse) and Canan. I think that if you keep doing it, at some point, it will become a little bit normal,” he said.

“I guess that’s why we had some stop-start games where we didn’t do so well for periods of time. But in total, I really think, except for the second half against Australia in the first game and the first half against New Zealand in Auckland, I thought we were always building and getting better in all departments and firing shots in all departments.

“We’ve lost two matches (in 2025) and after this one, we’ve still got another five on a really tough tour. As long as we get better and we are firing shots and some of them hit the target, that’s awesome.

“It’s getting there, but we are still far off.”

A crowd of 70,000-plus is expected for Saturday’s game. Tickets can be bought via Ticketmaster >>