Springboks chasing the win, not bonus points, against Scotland
· Citizen
Despite bonus points and points difference set to play a big part in where teams finish in the Nations Championship, the Springboks are only focused on the win when they take on Scotland in their round two match at Loftus in Pretoria on Saturday (kick-off 5:40pm).
The Boks top the Southern Hemisphere standings and the overall Nations Championship log thanks to their bonus point win over England last weekend, with Wales, Scotland, New Zealand and Ireland all equal with them on five points, but trailing on points difference.
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At the end of the competition’s group stage in November, teams from the Southern and Northern Hemisphere pools will be lined up against each other, so whoever finishes top of each pool will face each other to see who is the best in the game.
Considering the number of high-scoring matches last weekend, and seeing how important points difference and bonus points could become, Bok coach Rassie Erasmus insisted this week the Boks will still only be focused on winning, and nothing else.
“There was a lot of exciting rugby, with nearly all the games opening up. I saw teams often not kicking for touch, yet there were more maul tries scored in one weekend than there were in the whole of the Six Nations,” explained Erasmus.
“When teams got into the opposition 22, it seemed inevitable that they would score, especially in the All Blacks versus France game, which I thought was a thriller.
“I don’t know if they were chasing bonus points or not, but when we go into a Test match, we just want to win it. If you disrespect that, you are probably going to lose it. The win still counts the most for us.”
Inexperienced Boks
The Bok team named to take on Scotland is one of their most inexperienced teams in recent times. And, they are up against an in-form team that did well in the Six Nations and beat Los Pumas in Argentina last weekend, and Erasmus admitted that the Southern Hemisphere teams were still getting up to speed with the teams from the north.
“Argentina, Australia, New Zealand and us are in the same boat (with it the start of the season). The southern hemisphere teams usually take a game or two to get cohesion going. That is what happened to Argentina,” explained Erasmus.
“Scotland played very well. They beat England in the Six Nations, and are a good team. But with the Pumas, very few of their top players play in Argentina, they play in France, England, Japan and other countries.
“It is tough for them, and they did not have a warm-up game. Their flyhalf and the coach had just got back from being with the Barbarians. They probably had only a few training sessions before playing a Scotland side that had a whole Six Nations behind them.”