An embarrassed Rassie Erasmus says there will be changes to next week’s pre-selected team after the Springboks’ shock 38-22 defeat to the Wallabies at Ellis Park on Saturday.
The Boks stormed into a 22-0 lead after 18 minutes but conceded five unanswered tries in the second half as Australia celebrated their first win in Joburg since 1963.
Erasmus cut a frustrated figure in the post-match press conference.
“This is probably one of the most embarrassing press conferences I’ve done in a while,” he said. “Not because we were awful, but they were really good. And I don’t want to put the old cliché out there, credit to them. They were good, but we made them better with our performance. To be 22-0 up, we did the same against Italy, when 28-3 up, and then we let teams back in.
“We gave them one or two soft tries – an intercept here [from a Manie Libbok pass], a pass from Andre [Esterhuizen] that went to them.
“They were just better than us on the day in most departments. We didn’t scrum them. They beat us in the lineouts. For the first 25 minutes we were good at the breakdown, but after Siya [Kolisi] got injured and Marco [van Staden] had to go for an HIA, they bullied us there too. We as coaches got it terribly wrong.
“It wasn’t just tactical – they also physically dominated us. The longer the game went on, the stronger they got. At altitude, that’s supposed to be us. It shows what [Wallabies coach] Joe [Schmidt] is building there.”
REPORT: Wallabies stun Boks at Ellis Park
Asked if his team had overplayed their hand after the early tries, Erasmus admitted the Boks lost their way.
“Grant [Williams] had so many breaks, Manie had so many breaks, Edwill [van der Merwe] too. That changes games, but you also have to realise somewhere in the game that it’s not quite coming off.
“Their kick-to-ruck ratio was really good – we only kicked nine times in the second half. Maybe the players felt there was space, but that’s coaching, that’s on us. We must still build the innings. Twenty-two nil is not winning a game – it ended up losing by almost 20 points.
“The saddest thing is five [log] points for them and we didn’t even fight back to take the bonus point away. So we’re on zero, they’re on five. I can butter this up to sound cool and respectful, but we were just really dog s**t on the day.”
Erasmus stressed that responsibility lies with the management team.
“We have to look first at ourselves before we point fingers at the players. From now until next Saturday we’ll take a lot of flak, but when we take the credit when we’re doing well, then we must take the flak when we’re doing badly. We’re very disappointed, feeling bad for our supporters and our players.
“A player doesn’t just do what he wants out there, we guide them and we pick the combinations. If it doesn’t work, maybe the combinations were wrong, maybe the plans were wrong, maybe the half-time talk was terrible.
“I’m not smiling because I’m happy – it’s more an embarrassed smile.”
The Bok boss confirmed that changes are likely for next week’s Test in Cape Town.
“We had already picked next week’s team, but that will probably change a little bit because we want to get Ethan Hooker in, we want to give Canan [Moodie] a start, we want to give Krappie [Morne van den Berg] a start. We’ll have to rethink it.”
SIYA: We let ourselves down today
Captain Siya Kolisi admitted the Boks had only themselves to blame.
“We started well, but we didn’t keep building. Our heads dropped and shoulders slumped. That’s disappointing because we know what’s expected when you wear this jersey. We’ll own it and make sure we respond next week.”
Photo: Samuel Shivambu/BackpagePix
