LONG READ Rassie won’t be fooled again but ‘there may not be better time for Australia to meet Boks’

“…Smile and grin at the change all around

Pick up my guitar and play

Just like yesterday

Then I’ll get on my knees and pray

We don’t get fooled again”

So sang Roger Daltry and The Who back in the day, but it could easily have been Rassie Erasmus late last week as he emerged from his mini-break on Australia’s east coast.

The Springboks coach spoke to local media as the South Africans confirmed they will play Fiji in Gosford on the NSW Central Coast next September, a final pre-Rugby World Cup hit-out for both sides two weeks before the tournament kicks off.

Both teams will be based on the Central Coast next year and the Boks have used the last fortnight to familiarise themselves with their 2027 RWC training base, while they rest up and recover from the four-Test Greatest Rivalry series against New Zealand.

But Erasmus, mindful of the upset Australia sprung in round one of the Rugby Championship last year when they transformed an early 22-0 deficit into a 36-22 triumph, insisted there was no chance his team would be taking the Wallabies easy in Perth this Sunday.

“There was a little bit of arrogance from our side, being 22 up (after 19 minutes), and thinking, ‘It’s easy, boys’,” Erasmus told the Sydney Morning Herald as he recalled that shock Ellis Park loss.

“I wouldn’t say it was disrespect, but I would say, stupidly, we thought, ‘OK, now we just can play this bloody loose game against Australia’.

“And they held it, and (Max) Jorgensen and those guys cut us to pieces. They could have even given us more points in that game. They smashed us, and the next game in Cape Town we only beat them with seven points or something like that [30-22].”

As much as he was speaking to Australian media and wanting to say the right things, about both the Wallabies’ current five-match unbeaten streak and their still burnt-into-memory win last year, he could easily have been speaking to his players, too.

As much as Rassie wants to assure everyone he’s not going to take Australia lightly this week, he was always going to take this opportunity to rest bodies ahead of the November leg of the Nations Championship

But the come-down effect from such an intense series will be real. The ‘Lions hangover’ after last year’s Australian tour lingered well into the New Year for the Home Nations, England wing Tommy Freeman and Ireland prop Tadhg Furlong both conceding as much through this year’s Six Nations.

“Without realising it, I think I was tired,” Freeman said back in February. “My body felt like I was OK to go and I was saying to coaches, ‘Yeah I’m fine, I’m fine’. I just think mentally it was a bit more of a struggle.”

Furlong laid it out plain and clear: “Everything maybe seems insignificant the year after,” he said.

Indeed, Leinster started their URC campaign slowly, lightening training and playing loads for the 15-plus Lions tourists among their roster through the front half of the season. It turned out alright, making another European Champions Cup final and lifting the URC trophy for a second straight year.

Even before naming a starting side featuring 13 changes from the final Test against New Zealand, the Springboks had already excused Pieter-Steph du Toit and Damien de Allende from the Wallabies Test in Perth, sending those key players home for some extra time with their families with both men among the top three in terms of Test minutes played in 2026.

Top of that list is Jesse Kriel, who has played every minute of every Test this year. As much as Rassie wants to assure everyone he’s not going to take Australia lightly this week, he was always going to take this opportunity to rest bodies ahead of the November leg of the Nations Championship – where his side will be odds-on to finish atop the southern hemisphere standings.

“Anybody who plays four games against New Zealand will be a little bit punch-drunk at the end,” he told the SMH.

“That’s why prior to the New Zealand series with the Nations Championship games, we really rotated a lot. And in the Argentinian game we had to gamble a little bit, keeping players behind and we almost lost that match.

For the record, South Africa used 42 players through the Nations Championship, and another seven against Argentina. But through the Greatest Rivalry series against New Zealand, just 33 players were used.

Ever since I was a player, they’ve got big guys like (Owen) Finegan. Now, it is (Tom) Hooper, they’re massive, but they’ve got these weird-built guys, with massive size.

Prior to naming his team, Erasmus had said, “I don’t think we’ll gamble too much against Australia,” with the Springboks mentor confirming the Wallabies have always presented a challenge for the Boks regardless of current form lines or world rankings positions.

Though the Wallabies’ win rate against the Springboks sits at 42% overall going back to 1933, since their 1992 readmission to international rugby the Boks actually trail the Wallabies by two Test wins (32-34, with three draws). Even since South Africa won the 2019 RWC, only the win in Cape Town last year allowed the Springboks to edge ahead 5-4 in recent contests, although that tally includes wins on their last three meetings in Australia.

“We find them tremendously difficult to play against, I don’t know why,” Erasmus said. “I can’t say they’re more physical than other teams. Like, they’re definitely up there for physicality.

“But ever since I was a player, they’ve got big guys like (Owen) Finegan. Now, it is (Tom) Hooper, they’re massive, but they’ve got these weird-built guys, with massive size.

“They’re tough, strong guys. I remember with Finegan, I never could work out, how do you tackle the guy? Ever since those days, I just find them intriguing, the Australians.”

Despite only Eben Etzebeth and Ethan Hooker retaining their starting spots from the final Test of the Greatest Rivalry series for Sunday’s clash in Perth, Erasmus will continue hammering the ‘not taking the Australians lightly’ message. After the high of toppling their fiercest rivals 3-1, the last thing the Springboks want to do is drop a Test to the seventh-ranked Wallabies.

Similarly, Australia can still prepare to face the toughest Springboks team they can imagine, because it will likely still be the hardest they have faced to date in 2026.

After Ellis Park last year; they know there’s no chance South Africa will take them lightly for a second time in 12 months. There is no pressure – or expectation – on the Wallabies in this game as a result.

There’s plenty of pressure on the Boks, however. It might not be humiliating, but it would certainly be embarrassing for them to lose to Australia again, and embarrassing for Erasmus, particularly after his admission about last year’s loss at their supposed Johannesburg fortress.

Because of all of that, there may not be a better time for the Wallabies to meet the Springboks than this week. Imagine if after beating the All Blacks so comprehensively, South Africa couldn’t beat lowly Australia?

Erasmus knows the threat is real; Australia just need to be ready for a truly great opportunity.