The Springboks started they’re 2025 season on a high note, when they trashed Barbarians 54-7 at the rainy DHL Stadium in Cape Town on Saturday afternoon.
It’s a first win for them over the Baa-Baas since 2000 though, so good to end that quarter-century long drought.
The gloomy weather didn’t however dampen the mood of the 45 000 strong crowd, who saw the world champions up 19-0 at half-time.
Debutant Vincent Tshituka scored two tries for the green and gold, while the other tries were scored by Malcolm Marx, Cheslin Kolbe, Jan-Hendrik Wessels, Kurt-Lee Arendse, Lood de Jager and Damian de Allende, while Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and Manie Libbok converted for the Springboks.
The win is the first for the Boks since 2000, and coach Rassie Erasmus was overjoyed as his plans for the new season are going according to plan.
“We won’t get carried away with this performance.
Certainly, some of the newer guys showed us that they can do it at this level, but we’ll layer them in.
We know who is going to play in Italy one and two, and certainly by the end of the Georgia game, which will be a grind, we’ll have a group of 45, 50 that have had some game time,” said Erasmus.
Stand-in captain, Jessie Kriel, heaped praise at the players especially playing in difficult conditions.
“We came in here to be bold and positive and not let the conditions affect us and keep the ball in hand and I thought we looked dangerous on a turnover ball.
I thought we looked dangerous when we got the ball into guys like Aphelele Fassi, Kurt-Lee Arendse and Cheslin Kolbe’s hands.
They’re special rugby players, they can make something out of nothing, and we saw that today,” said the victorious captain.
Kriel led the team in the absence of the injured Siya Kolisi, who withdrew on the eve of the match.
With the Barbarians done and dusted, Erasmus said the team to face Italy and Georgia in the Castle Lager Incoming Series has already been decided.
He said they’re looking forward to the better weather conditions when they face Italy on Saturday in Pretoria.
“Some of the half gaps and some of the line breaks we made would have stuck if the weather had been drier.
We can’t wait to play on a dry pitch and improve on our attack.
We want to get better, the next three matches we’ll be trying to focus on before we hit the Castle Lager Rugby Championship,” explained Erasmus.
