Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus and captain Siya Kolisi refused to make excuses for the Boks’ narrow Nations Championship defeat against France in Paris late on Friday evening and attributed the defeat to missing out on a handful of point-scoring opportunities.
The Boks entered the break of the test at the Stade de France trailing 21-7 after a try was disallowed by the visitors on the stroke of halftime.
However, they fought their way back into the match with two tries after the break – one of which was converted – which left them two points behind on the scoreboard with minutes to play, and while they fought bravely until the final whistle, they had to settle for the 21-19 defeat.
Erasmus was frank about his assessment of the game and said: “France played really well, and we didn’t, so I can’t find a lot of excuses. They took their opportunities when they got them, and we didn’t.
“It’s probably a cliché, but I definitely think we had enough opportunities and there were simple tries we could have scored with one last pass, and perhaps one or two wrong decisions, such as not kicking for the corner and rather expecting the referee to give four penalties in a row.
“In front of a crowd like this you might feel you have dominance, but it’s just human not to keep on penalising the home team if they’ve already got a card or two. But in the end, it comes down to the fact that they played well, and we didn’t.”
CARDS WERE COSTLY
Kolisi reiterated Erasmus’ sentiments: “Early in the first half we created opportunities in the wide channels that we didn’t take, and when they created chances, they took them straight away. So, we could have been better in many areas.
“However, the effort and hard work was there from our team, and they fought till the end. But if you create so many opportunities and don’t take them against a team like this, you’re not going to get the win. We know what we need to fix, and hopefully we will play better next week.”
Erasmus said the yellow card to Lood de Jager, for a dangerous tackle, and Jasper Wiese’s 20-minute red card for a dangerous clean were costly.
“I don’t think any of it was intentional, but I agree it should have been a card,” he said.
“We can’t moan about that, but I didn’t think anybody flew in to try and hurt somebody. When we got the red card, we were a little under the pump.”
The Bok coach added: “If you must look for a positive, it’s the effort, the grind and the fight back. After about 30 minutes, they didn’t score again, and we scored even though we were down to 14 men for most of the game. The frustration is that the discipline cost us. To lose by two points, or any number, is terrible.
“They had the seven-pointers. One was beautiful and the other bounced off a player’s head, and no defensive system can stop that. With all the things that went wrong, we played ourselves into that hole. It wasn’t that they forced us to play that way.
“We were uncharacteristically a little tentative tonight, and when something like that happens, it’s probably the coaching staff. When we got the opportunity, we were a little bit hesitant, and I have to find out why that happened.”
Reacting to the contest as a whole, Erasmus said it felt like a fast and intense test: “Both teams scored three tries, and I thought it was a great contest. We just didn’t play well enough. The reality is that it’s not nice sitting on the losing side.”
Commenting on the decision to switch his front rows before the match, Erasmus said: “We waited until the captains' run on Thursday to decide and even then, we were not sure if we should, but we decided shortly before the game, and it was mainly with testing that combination with the Rugby World Cup next year in mind.”
The Springboks will make the journey from France to Ireland on Saturday for their third Nations Championship match in Dublin.