{"id":369705,"date":"2025-08-24T12:22:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-24T12:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/369705\/"},"modified":"2025-08-24T12:22:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T12:22:10","slug":"the-boks-style-of-play","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/369705\/","title":{"rendered":"The Boks’ style of play"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Rassie Erasmus has confronted head-on the long-standing debate around the Springboks\u2019 playing style after they ground out a clunky 30-22 win over the Wallabies in Cape Town.<\/p>\n

Erasmus admitted after the match that while South African supporters crave both victories and an attractive brand of rugby, the world champions remain most comfortable in contests that descend into an arm-wrestle.<\/p>\n

The Springboks edged Joe Schmidt\u2019s Wallabies a week after their eight-match winning streak was broken in Johannesburg.<\/p>\n

That Ellis Park loss fuelled questions around South Africa\u2019s approach, with Erasmus acknowledging the passion and scrutiny that comes from fans when results slip.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people tend to think when we lose a game, you know, there are all these massive problems and everybody starts analysing the squad and stuff \u2013 which is passionate supporters,\u201d Erasmus said. \u201cWe know there were some handling errors \u2013 although the conditions played a part in that \u2013 but their back three was fantastic and this game gave us a good taste of what we are going to see when we play New Zealand<\/a> because they have lightning backs as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Australia matched South Africa<\/a> with three tries apiece, but James O\u2019Connor\u2019s wayward kicking and the Boks\u2019 ability to close out the contest ultimately proved decisive.<\/p>\n

For Erasmus, the performance was far from flawless, but it was evidence of what kind of game his team clearly prefers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe played a more balanced game this week,\u201d he explained. \u201cI don\u2019t think we created 50 percent of what we created last weekend but we ground the game out, when we thought it was going to be a grind.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are trying to please our crowds by winning and playing a better brand and sometimes we get it wrong like we did last weekend, but sometimes when we get into games like this where it\u2019s a real grind we tend to find a way.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe tend to struggle when it\u2019s an open, free-running game \u2013 it\u2019s beautiful rugby but you lose on the scoreboard. Overall, we\u2019ll learn from this and hopefully the tighter the matches get, we\u2019ll get more comfortable with it as we have been in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wallabies counterpart Schmidt admitted he fully expected the Boks to return to their rugby DNA in the rematch.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they had 35 kicks in play, so they certainly peppered us with balls in the air and balls behind us,\u201d said Schmidt. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t something we didn\u2019t expect.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rassie Erasmus has confronted head-on the long-standing debate around the Springboks\u2019 playing style after they ground out a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":369706,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[4151,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-369705","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115083722420887235","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}