"The Welsh players were gutsy" Springbok head coach Rassie Erasmus piles praise on Welsh squad despite resounding South Africa win in Cardiff.

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South Africa head coach Rassie Erasmus and skipper Siya Kolisi addressed the media following their 45-12 thumping of Wales at the Principality stadium. Despite looking like a simple win for the Springboks who ran in seven tries the scoreboard didn’t necessarily reflect the actual game something which Erasmus echoed when he spoke after the game.

Erasmus praises Welsh player spirits despite the full time score.

He said “Yeah. Well, they’re such a gutsy team, and I can more talk about the Welsh people and teams. I was the first guy who lost a game here at the stadium in the South African Jersey, and I missed the tackle on Taylor. I’ll never forget it. And since then, I’ve always thought these guys are tough.”

“And again today, you know, they could have fly down when we were, I don’t know, how many points up, and we were going hard at them. we were really trying to smash them. I know the scoreboard is, I don’t know, 25 points or whatever. But the Welsh players were gutsy. You guys are gutsy people. And I don’t know what behind the scenes must get right, but, you know, I know Warren is a great coach.”

“I know your players’ talent, and today again, you know, why didn’t they just leave us and go to 50, 60? Last try. They always hang in there. But for a team who’s got 14 caps average, you know, against a team that I think 45 caps average, there’s some solid solid guys in there.” said Erasmus.

Erasmus more than happy with his squads performance.

He said “Yeah. I think, overall, we may have answered a few questions. I think for us having a new attack and defense coach off the World Cup, when attack and defense are the only 2 things you can do in a game apart from the ball’s kicked, and we got 2 fresh coaches in. And the way the players I thought adapted to that, and those coaches slotted into our management team, We are satisfied, obviously, with the scoreboard, but we’re also satisfied with the year in total. I think tonight was a nice dominant performance by us, but still, you know you make so many changes.You’re gonna lack the final finishing stuff.”

“But, yes, I thought the effort that the guys put out there, it’s an old cliche, but we’re always happy when that happens. And I think we must sometimes just give the players a lot of credit because, sometimes I mistake things on board when you’re just chopping and changing. And it’s not always easy because it’s a test gap that sometimes they don’t play and they handle that. And then we finish as a group of probably 60 that are straight to us, and there’s winners for all of them.” Said the Springboks head coach.

Rassie insists he’s delighted with his sides year.

He said “It’s obviously nice the team to have achieved that. I think always my worry in the beginning of the season when sort of planned the thing in my head was is how will the players take the swapping in and out and building and accepting that we’re not 25 players, 26 players, but we’re 50 plus. I was not sure if they would understand the senior guys or the older guys that they would.It would probably make their careers longer if they don’t play every single test match every week and give the younger guys chance. So, that was my worries internally that I sort of thought of in my in my head. But I I think when we were honest with the guys in the beginning, and we actually said, those who doesn’t wanna buy into this, you know, unfortunately, then you can’t be part of the group.And so with that sort of gamble in my heart that I thought will this work? Then those results means a lot.”

Springbok boss gives an update on injuries after physically demanding test in Wales.

He said “What they did to Eben but I can’t go if you go and look at individual efforts and they had suddenly line speed on defense, which we didn’t expect. And, yeah, it’s young guys. I mean, I don’t know every one of them personal, but, that wasn’t a walk in the park. I mean, we got 3 injuries on Elrigh [Louw] ribs, you know Eben’s [Etzebeth] back, Wilcow [Louw] got a swollen eye.”

“You know, Jasper [Wiese]with I think he also got [hurt in the] ribs.So they smashed us today, and it took out of a lot of hard work from us. So Wales is not a team that lack of physicality. They have it. We’ve always said that you can go back and look in the records. For us, we find them a very physical thing.Obviously, the doctor is currently busy assessing them. I think nothing is obviously, Elrigh’s rib. I think a rib takes time. Jasper, I think, got a stinger on his shoulder.”

“A stinger on his shoulder, you know, that always tells you in the next 3, 4 days how that reacts.Eben his lower back got sore, you know, We didn’t see a point in letting him grind it out for another 40 minutes. All the Welsh boys were really going hard at us when he had the ball. And other injuries was just cuts and bruises and so on. Lots of bruises.” He said.

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