“Going for two major competitions at the same time is new to me,” he says. “That is especially the case when you are working against teams like Ulster who are preparing for three more league games, a semi-final and a final in the PRO12. The teams you are playing against throw everything resources-wise into that game. And we are preparing for three league games with a European semi-final in between.

“You want to throw everything into every game also but maybe you can’t always do so. If you don’t, it almost looks like you disrespect the opposition, which you don’t, you are just thinking a little more long-term. It’s new territory for me and for Jacques (Nienaber defence coach). Luckily, Jerry (Flannery), Felix (Jones) and George (Murray) have experience of it. We really tap into their knowledge and hopefully we get it right.

“Listen, it is definitely not daunting, it’s exciting. But it’s also nerve-wracking. Last Saturday was nerve-wracking, making 10 changes and then losing Tyler (Bleyendaal) in the first 10 minutes when you are playing against a team that’s full of Scottish internationals and you are playing at home and you don’t want to disappoint the crowd.

“It is nerve-wracking while it’s happening, then afterwards when you grind it out, you think maybe it was the right call to make all of those changes.”

It remains to be seen if there is any foundation to the reports linking Erasmus with a return to South Africa sooner than anticipated.

Either way, he has plenty to keep him occupied over the next seven or eight weeks.

“Yes, it is nice but then again, there are so many things that play a role. Getting momentum, managing players, going into a European semi-final... it’s good to think when we started the PRO2, we though: ‘Just improve and do better’ and now we’re in a position with three games to go that we can almost secure a place in the semi-finals. While we are doing that, other things happen and we can’t control all of those things.”

One such dilemma may be how to best handle the case of former Springbok Jean Deysel whom Erasmus brought here recently as a temporary replacement to cover injury problems in the second and back rows of the scrum. He likens the situation to when Jean Kleyn and Jaco Taute also came from South Africa earlier in the campaign.

“You have to be fair to the other boys that have done all the hard work during the season,” Erasmus reasoned. “When do you put him in? How long do you put him in? Those kinds of things. Also, he hasn’t got a hell of a lot of game-time over the last few weeks for various reasons, flying here, work permits, those kinds of things.

“It is all about management. That will be one of the reasons the team selection for this weekend must be clever, if I can call it that. To get game-time into certain guys who might be in the mix next weekend. So we must make some tough decisions. Listen, Jean played for 40 minutes in a team he had only known a game plan for 10 days, it must have been a challenge for him, just adapting, learning team-mates’ names and those kinds of things. I think he did okay.”

While Conor Murray is unlikely to line out tomorrow against Ulster, Erasmus is still hopeful he will make it in time for the European clash with Saracens. However, he is much encouraged by the consistency displayed over the last couple of months by Duncan Williams for whom he clearly has a lot of time.

“In six years, Duncan has never missed a training session or match because of injury and hopefully that continues until Conor is right,” said Erasmus.

“But I can tell you we have put a lot of time into Angus Lloyd, John Poland, Abrie Griesel and all the other guys to make sure they can step up to the plate. Cathal Sheridan got injured, Tomás O’Leary left us and then we picked up injuries. it’s just bad luck this year at No. 9. I’m sure other provinces have similar problems in other positions and sometimes you just have to bite the bullet.”

This story first appeared in the Irish Examiner.