Discipline and injuries a slight concern for Springboks

A improbable begin to the Rugby Championship for the Springboks was barely spoiled by ill-discipline and harm considerations forward of the second recreation towards the Wallabies in Perth this coming weekend.

During their 33-7 bonus level win in Brisbane, the Boks had three yellow playing cards, coming within the final 13 minutes of the match, which left them taking part in with 13-men for most of that interval.

Luckily it didn’t price them, because the Wallabies may solely go over for one strive in that interval, which didn’t threaten the bonus level, nevertheless they are going to be conscious of their poor disciplinary document of their final two video games.

In their earlier match towards Portugal, with an admittedly largely fringe facet, the Boks additionally had three playing cards — a crimson and two yellows — and in the event that they do the identical towards stronger opponents they might be punished dearly.

Discipline

“We are happy with the performance, but not the three yellow cards,” defined Bok coach Rassie Erasmus after the match in Brisbane on Saturday.

“We additionally didn’t cherish the ball and take care of it like a piece of gold, however at occasions we performed with good construction and intent. So, we actually don’t wish to throw factors away like that.

“We would have liked to keep them scoreless, but it would be arrogant to say that. The reality is we wanted to come here and win, and we are delighted that we were able to do that today.”

A significant harm fear can be at lock, the place the Boks needed to do a late rejig after RG Snyman and Ruan Nortje have been dominated out of the opening match.

Snyman, who was initially named to begin, was all the time contact and go after choosing up a niggle within the days earlier than the Test, however Nortje, who was supposed to exchange him, suffered a knock on the captains run.

This noticed Pieter-Steph du Toit have to modify from flank to lock, Ben-Jason Dixon are available at seven, and Salmaan Moerat slot onto the bench, simply earlier than the sport.

But regardless of the setbacks, Erasmus is assured that each Snyman and Nortje can be prepared for the second match in Perth this weekend.

“RG has got a little bit of a foot injury and then Ruan was going to slot into the starting line-up because Salmaan is more of a front lock, who plays the same position as Eben (Etzebeth),” defined Erasmus on what was alleged to occur.

“But then RG didn’t pass his fitness test on Friday, and Ruan also hurt his knee. Luckily it doesn’t look too serious. So we are keeping both guys here (in the squad).”