By: Bon Miguela Nhlapo
Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus insists South Africa’s 33-16 defeat at 10bet Ellis Park to New Zealand in the opening Test of Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry is not a catastrophe, as it’s been described. Admitting that his side has plenty to put right, ahead of next Saturday’s second Test in Cape Town.
The Springboks conceded five tries to one as the All Blacks produced a dominant display to take a 1-0 lead in the series and toppling the Springboks from their top world ranking.
However, Erasmus drew on the Springboks’ past experiences of recovering from difficult defeats, pointing to their losses against the British & Irish Lions and New Zealand at the Rugby World Cup.
We lost the first Test against the British & Irish Lions in 2021 and everyone said it was a catastrophe.
“We lost the first pool game against New Zealand in the World Cup in 2019 and everyone said that was catastrophic, so we have been in a lot of catastrophic situations.”
The Springboks now face a difficult route back into the series, with Erasmus acknowledging the advantage held by the All Blacks in tonight’s game. To make up, South Africa needs three consecutive victories to claim the inaugural Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry title.
We’re now in a position where if we want to win the series we have to win three games on the trot,” he said.
“Now we have to go to Cape Town and try and win there. If we do, it’s all level, but we still have to win three matches in a row.”
Coach Erasmus was particularly critical of South Africa’s execution, saying the team failed to deliver on a game plan they already knew was required against New Zealand.
I’m not going to butter it up with that cliché and say we’re going to learn from this and get better. We didn’t need to learn from this; we knew what we had to do on the day, we didn’t do it,” he said.
The points were sat on 19-16 at the 58th minute and the Boks appeared to have an opportunity to build pressure through their scrum. Instead, they conceded a penalty. This being one of several moments Erasmus identified as a turning point.
He commented that even a successful kick would not have made a difference as the Boks were visibly struggling.
“Even if we had kicked over that scrum penalty and we won we still made a helluva lot of errors,” Erasmus said.
The Springbok coach also credited the All Blacks for their game.
We didn’t play well. Against a class team like New Zealand, if you don’t convert, they give you a proper hiding,” he said.
“With hindsight, there were a lot of things we didn’t convert; I think there were two or three big moments when we let the game go away from us.”
Despite the heavy defeat, Erasmus believes the Springboks can turn it around when they return to Cape Town.
The All Blacks will first face the Lions at Ellis Park in Johannesburg on Tuesday in their final match against a franchise team before the second Test at DHL Stadium next Saturday.