Bok coach Rassie Erasmus pleased with preparations for Ireland Test

Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus is pleased with progress made so far in their preparations for the crunch Test match against arch-rivals Ireland next Saturday at Loftus. 

The Springboks have been hard at work since they returned from their comprehensive win over Wales in London last weekend and Erasmus has given the players the weekend off to be with their families. 

“We had a good and productive training week despite our flight from London to South Africa being cancelled on Sunday night. It was pleasing to see how players, who joined us this week, stepped back into Test mode and got stuck in at training,” said Erasmus. 

“Some of the players have been in our set-up for a while, which assisted, and the new players also wasted no time familiarising themselves with the systems and we are pleased with how they slotted in.” 

The Springboks returned to South Africa on Tuesday where they were joined by the rest of their teammates named in Erasmus’ 39-man squad and they immediately got down to business with their first training session.  

They had two further training sessions on Wednesday and closed off the week with their final field session on Friday morning before Erasmus released the players for a short weekend break and they will reassemble in Pretoria on Sunday. 

“I must give credit to our head of high performance and operations team for their hard work to ensure the week functioned as smoothly as possible despite arriving in South Africa a day later than expected,” said Erasmus.  

“I believe we are in the right frame of mind for the challenge against the world’s No 2 ranked team. 

“We had a chance this week to analyse what we did well against Wales and the areas we need to put more emphasis on going into the Ireland Tests and we were delighted with the professional manner in which the players made the mindset switch to the Castle Lager incoming series. 

“There is huge excitement in the group for the challenge ahead and that was evident on and off the field this week. 

“Everyone knows a big step-up is required next week, but we are pleased with the momentum we built up by defeating Wales and getting international game time under the belt. 

“With new members on our coaching staff, the overseas-based players and new recruits will have some work to do to ensure the entire group is fully aligned in our new structures, but this week served as a good start.” 

Erasmus will name his match-day team to face Ireland on Tuesday.