After watching the Springboks’ 17-0 lead over England shrink to 17-14 at half time at Ellis Park, coach Rassie Erasmus admitted memories of last year’s collapse against Australia surfaced. At the same venue the Boks blew a 22-0 lead to lose 38-22 to the Wallabies. “We did definitely see flashbacks of last year, and I think it’s easy to say now after we won that we learnt from our mistakes, but the chat was there at halftime,” Erasmus said after the South Africans’ opening Nations Championship match, won 45-21 by the world champions. “‘Boys, we’ve been here; we know how it feels if we don’t rectify things in the second half.’ We had to be really honest with one another at half time.“Luckily we had that game last year; we could rectify things during the halftime chat.”Erasmus made the point that the Boks weren’t fully primed for the match. Pieter-Steph du Toit had not played much in the past several months, Manie Libbok had been playing for a second division team in Japan and Grant Williams had not played for a few months. And then both flankers were rookies with one cap between them; Cameron Hanekom had come off the bench in a 2024 match and Paul de Villiers was making his international debut. “It’s normally the biggest challenge for us after not playing together for seven months — how quickly can we get in sync and how match-fit can the guys be? “A lot of the guys tick those boxes for us, which we are happy about,” said Erasmus, who brought Hanekom and De Villiers into the starting XV after captain Siya Kolisi and Eben Etzebeth withdrew before the match. But his system of creating depth in the Springbok squad paid dividends, with the team gelling to pull off an emphatic victory. This enforced test showed his plan was working. “Sometimes it’s difficult or it takes a lot of courage to swap in and out, especially with a new competition. It’s tough not to play Siya and Paul is coming through and Marco [van Staden] is coming through and then you think, ‘where are you going to play them?’“We’ve got a saying ‘it will come to us’, but certainly we’ll have to make some big calls this year to be 100% sure about next year that when we get into the World Cup, we test our depth.”Du Toit, who took over as captain from Kolisi, said the squad system made it manageable for Hanekom and De Villiers. I think that’s a nice thing about us at the moment; we’ve got a really good system— Pieter-Steph du Toit“If you lose the quality of [Kolisi and Etzebeth], the young players want to definitely step up and take the opportunity with both hands. We had an extra clarity session and made sure they know exactly what to do. “We tried to inform them how the game was going to go, but again the system is set in stone and if you buy into the system you understand this — the system will take care of the player. “I think that’s a nice thing about us at the moment; we’ve got a really good system.”Erasmus said the aerial battle — where fullback Damian Willemse thrived under the high ball — was becoming a new set piece. “It’s another source of possession.”