The New Zealand Herald's 'running scared' framing of Erasmus's unusually high media presence this week misreads what is actually a deliberate pressure-absorption strategy. Brenden Nel draws the line back to 2018 Wellington — where Erasmus publicly staked his job on the result — to argue that making himself the lightning rod is a recurring Erasmus playbook move, not a sign of desperation. Five press conferences in 10 days, the Thursday team naming, and his public admission of coaching-box errors are, in Nel's reading, designed to free his assistants to fix the lineout, maul, and breakdown without the distraction of media management. The Boks converted just one try from eleven 22-metre entries at Ellis Park — Erasmus has owned those tactical failures explicitly, and the piece argues that ownership is the point. With a series loss already on the cards if Saturday goes wrong in Cape Town, and the tour continuing to Baltimore, the stakes are as high as they've been in a while — and Erasmus is responding the way he always does.