Rassie Erasmus reacts to dishing out All Blacks’ worst-ever loss

Rassie Erasmus is not getting carried away with a dominant Springboks performance in the New Zealand capital, despite dishing out the All Blacks‘ biggest ever defeat, again.

The coach sipped a beer as he sat before the media at Sky Stadium, cutting a much more relaxed figure than he did one week ago. His side put together a five-try second-half performance to retain the Freedom Cup and keep their hopes of a Rugby Championship double alive. Never before has an All Blacks team been put to the sword like it.

But for Erasmus, the lessons of the past are ever-present, and a certain loss at the hands of New Zealand back in 2017 was front of mind as he put the result in perspective.

“We’ve been on the other side, when we got 57 away from home. So, there’s no need for us to celebrate too much, because the respect we have for them; they’ve given us shots many times,” the coach said.

“We’re just glad we got five points and we’re in the mix in The Rugby Championship. Everyone talked about the (Eden Park) record last week; they kept the record and didn’t put it in our faces.

“The scoreline is nice, for the guys to hang in there is nice. It’s more for us about what we’re trying to achieve.

“I know what it feels like in that other changing room. So, it’s nice, but I don’t think we have to dwell on that.”

2017’s 57-0 defeat was the Springboks’ largest in the team’s history, and yet they bounced back to win the Rugby World Cup two years later.

The day before this Test, team captain Siya Kolisi was insistent that the selection changes made between last week’s Eden Park Test and this one were about rewarding players rather than simply giving the “young guys” a run.

Erasmus echoed that sentiment post-match.

“Firstly, what I want to say is, we always tried to say, there are a couple of realities. There’s the opposition’s reality, our reality and what the world’s reality is, and there’s the truth.

“The truth was they had eight players with less than 10 caps, and we only had two with less than 10 caps. So we always saw it that way, that we’d been building and giving guys chances at certain stages.

“We were very happy with the performances they had, but the way the guys who didn’t play this week prepared them for this game, because they played last week against the All Black team, and at one stage they were really giving us shots.

“So we’re happy to say we’ve used other players, but yes, guys put up their hands and they showed they can do it at this stage. So it’s nice ot know that.

“We had a lot of injuries today, in this match. I’m not quite sure what the extent of those injuries are. But it’s more about the trust from the older guys, to prepare the younger guys, which is really nice.

“But New Zealand played, also, with eight guys with less than 10 caps, so that was our reality going into this game.”