Rassie Erasmus: We have a 'good chance' of winning World Cup

After a shortened Rugby Championship, the Boks will face Argentina, Wales and New Zealand in RWC warmup fixtures. Then they will try to advance to the World Cup knockout stages from a group that includes Scotland, Romania, Ireland and Tonga.

The fact that there are a lot of players in the current group who were part of the 2019 triumph gives them a good chance, says Erasmus but he refused to label South Africa as favourites.

"The nice thing about this group is we have been together for a long time. We are very realistic and we don™t often get dragged into what people are saying or thinking," Erasmus said.

"We know realistically that in 2019 we were sort of the underdogs going into the World Cup. But now we are world champions and we have to go and try and defend that.

"We feel we have as good a chance (as anyone else) ¦ but we are under no illusions ¦ Australia under Eddie (Jones), New Zealand, Ireland, who are number one (in the world), France are number two, you can go right through to Scotland.

"It would be stupid to think we are favourites. We know that and aren™t even going to argue that because there is no sense in doing that.

"But we definitely feel the expectations on our shoulders because people expect us to go and defend our title. So we are certainly going to try."