Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus and captain Andre Esterhuizen were frank in their assessment about the team’s disappointing defeat in a hard grind against the Wallabies at the Optus Stadium in Perth on Sunday, and accepted full blame for the result.
The Wallabies entered the break leading by 24-17 and extended that to 42-17 after 65 minutes, and although the Boks managed to claw their way back into the match, taking the game down to the wire, Erasmus and Esterhuizen made no excuses for the 42-38 defeat.
“For us, we lost in a Springbok jersey against Australia, and with all the disruptions, we have nobody else to blame but ourselves for the result,” said Erasmus.
“I know the technology failed a bit, the clock kept running and didn’t stop at times for example, but that didn’t influence how we played. We controlled that. We didn’t play well enough tonight to beat a stronger team.”
The Bok coach added: “When you’re 25 points behind, there’s nobody else to blame but yourself. We rolled the dice a bit, and some guys haven’t played a lot together in a long time, but it’s not an excuse.
“We picked the team, and we had a game plan, and I thought we had a chance at the end, but the better team won on the night. It’s sad to lose, but it’s not because we’ve been together too long. It’s because we didn’t play well enough.”
Asked how valuable this experience was for the team ahead of next year’s Rugby World Cup in Australia, Erasmus said: “Australia are a good team and they’ve definitely improved a lot. They played at home and they’re the World Cup hosts next year.
“We might meet them in a vital playoff game, and it was nice to get a taste of them tonight. When we play them next year, we’ll know a little bit more about each other. I’m not going to say it a case of lessons learned, but I think it was a valuable experience.”
Esterhuizen was equally disappointed with the result: “It was pretty intense. At one stage, we were concentrating on getting one try, then getting another, and taking it step by step. But like we said, we should never have been in that situation.
“We put ourselves there. I think the fans and people watching the game really enjoyed it, but we should be better and not get into such situations.”