Rassie Erasmus admitted his side's half-time wobble against England stirred uncomfortable memories of last year's capitulation against Australia at the same venue. The Springboks had raced to a 17-0 lead inside 12 minutes before England clawed back to 17-14 by the interval, prompting the head coach to recall the Wallabies match in which South Africa surrendered a 22-0 advantage to lose 38-22.
"We did definitely see flashbacks of last year and I think it's easy to say now after we won that we learned from mistakes, but the chat was there at halftime," Erasmus said after the 45-21 victory. "'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."
The world champions had been forced into late changes when captain Siya Kolisi and Eben Etzebeth withdrew on match day, handing debuts or rare starts to Cameron Hanekom and Paul de Villiers in the back row. Erasmus pointed to the enforced reshuffling as vindication of his squad-depth strategy, with several players short of match fitness after the seven-month break. Pieter-Steph du Toit had limited recent game time, Manie Libbok had been playing second-division rugby in Japan, and Grant Williams had not featured for months.
"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 the guys can be," Erasmus said. "A lot of the guys tick those boxes for us, which we are happy about." The Boks ran in seven tries to secure an emphatic opening win in the Nations Championship.