Rassie Erasmus says South Africa do not buy in to criticism of opponents England
The reigning champions are red-hot favourites to win Saturday’s Paris semi-final.
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Rassie Erasmus insists South Africa will not be lulled into complacency by the negativity surrounding the ability of World Cup semi-final opponents England.
The reigning champions are red-hot favourites to win Saturday’s Paris showdown with Steve Borthwick’s side to keep their title defence on track.
England came into the tournament in dismal form and with plenty of fans and pundits predicting a pool-stage exit.
Yet Borthwick’s men are the only unbeaten side still standing and the northern hemisphere’s sole representative in the last four.
While England’s relatively smooth progress has been aided by a favourable route, Springboks director of rugby Erasmus is braced for a “very tough test” and highlighted the similar statistics of the two nations to emphasise his point.
“If we think England is bad because people from outside say that they are not doing well… our reality is the truth, not the reality that people create outside our camp,” he told a media briefing on Monday.
“We know from the Premiership, a lot of our players play against them, and we know Borthwick is an excellent coach which he showed at Leicester and as a captain and a player for England.
“It will be a very tough test against a team that hasn’t lost a game and more or less conceded the same amount of tries and racked up the same amount of points (as us).
“If you look at England, they scored 19 tries and got 180 points and we scored 26 tries and also have 180 points.
“Then if you look on the points conceded side, they’ve conceded six tries, we’ve conceded seven and they’ve conceded 63 points and we’re 62.
“So, you can know how close this game (will be) if you just look at stats – and I know stats don’t always tell the whole picture.”
Three-time winners South Africa set up a rematch of the 2019 final, which they won 32-12, by extinguishing the dream of hosts France.
The Springboks edged an epic Stade de France encounter 29-28 on Sunday evening to replace eliminated group phase rivals Ireland at the top of the world rankings.
“It was two teams that tactically, physically and mentally tried to really push one another to the edge,” Erasmus said of the clash with Fabien Galthie’s men.
“(It was) a relief to beat a team that is so well coached, which afterwards I had a beer with, and I must say the respect that he (Galthie) showed and the way he spoke to us afterwards was really humble and sincere.”