{"id":2319,"date":"2025-11-28T08:25:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T08:25:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/?p=2319"},"modified":"2025-11-28T08:25:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T08:25:12","slug":"wales-v-south-africa-springbok-head-coach-rassie-erasmus-says-world-needs-strong-wales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/?p=2319","title":{"rendered":"Wales v South Africa: Springbok head coach Rassie Erasmus says world needs strong Wales"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Erasmus highlighted occasions where Wales had got the better of him during his international career as a player and coach.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I played in the opening game in the Millennium Stadium in 1999 and they thrashed us,&#8221; said Erasmus.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;It was the first time ever we lost against the Welsh and Mark Taylor ran over the top of me. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;My first game as head coach was against the Welsh in Washington in 2018 and we lost. Then the next game here in Cardiff, we lost again. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;In the 2019 World Cup in the semi-final, only three points was the difference.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Former flanker Erasmus might have been part of the Springboks side beaten by Wales in 1999 in Cardiff, but he was also part of the squad who inflicted a record 96-13 defeat against Wales the previous year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Many pundits are predicting a heavy Welsh defeat this weekend given the gulf between the two sides but the Springboks coach is not expecting a repeat of 27 years ago in Pretoria. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"> &#8220;I can&#8217;t remember much about that 1998 game but then the next year they beat us, that&#8217;s how crazy it is,&#8221; said Erasmus.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;It was a depleted Wales side back them, a bit like a B team with a lot of injuries. I don&#8217;t think it&#8217;s going to be anything like that this weekend, it&#8217;s going to be a grind. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;What do these guys have to lose? Other than manning up, putting a marker down and saying &#8216;here we are&#8217; against the Springboks.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;That&#8217;s what this Wales team is going to do. Steve Tandy [Wales head coach] looks like he is getting the structures together. We will not be underestimating Wales.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Erasmus highlighted occasions where Wales had got the better of him during his international career as a player and coach. &#8220;I played in the opening game in the Millennium Stadium in 1999 and they thrashed us,&#8221; said Erasmus. &#8220;It was the first time ever we lost against the Welsh and Mark Taylor ran over the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2320,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rugby"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}