Rassie is a shrewd operator. i said during the Jap game i didn't like the way the Boks kicked away possession but couldn't argue witj the the result - a big win.
Cape Town - Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus says his side deliberately played without the ball for large parts against Japan in order to prepare for the All Blacks.
The Boks beat the Japanese 41-7 in Saitama last Friday but their win was based on a staunch defensive effort.
Erasmus' charges only had 36% possession but defended their tryline like Trojans.
But this was the plan, Erasmus admitted, as the South Africans expect dominating possession to be difficult in their opening World Cup game against New Zealand in Yokohama.
"Playing without the ball was intentional. Just for this first game to see how it goes. Because we never know what it (the weather conditions) will be like against New Zealand," Erasmus said, as quoted by the NZ Herald website.
Conditions are expected to be slippery in South Africa's opener against New Zealand - either because of rain or simply wet due to the extreme heat and humidity in Japan.
This makes a possession-dominated game plan tough to execute.
"One of our first priorities was to adapt to the weather circumstances. The humidity meant the ball was wet, after 25 minutes all the jerseys were wet and the arms were wet. We are used to this sort of thing from games in Durban in February so we treated it like it was a wet weather game," Erasmus added.
"It paid off a bit but there were times when Japan almost got away and scored tries. So I would say that there were stages we were really effective in doing it but also Japan could have capitalised on opportunities at other stages and then it could have been a different game."
