Bloemfontein loss was 'a disaster' for Boks

There was no way to sugarcoat it - last weekend’s test defeat to Wales in Bloemfontein was a “disaster” for the Springboks.

Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber admitted as much at the team announcement for the third test on Tuesday, with the final test on Saturday in Cape Town now looming as a decider.

Not only did Wales win their first test in South Africa in the history of games between the two sides, the Bok side probably took a step back in terms of their long-term plans as well.

And now with the decider on the line, the Boks will need to win on Saturday to avoid embarrassment of a home series defeat, something few would have predicted at the start of the series.

The pressure will now be firmly on the Boks as they go into the last game with an expectant crowd looking forward to seeing the response they will bring on Saturday.

Nienaber reiterated that the team that lost in the final minutes in Bloemfontein was one that the Bok management firmly believed would beat Wales.

Despite this, there are only five survivors this week and other than first-choice players like Eben Etzebeth, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Handre Pollard and Trevor Nyakane, only Jaden Hendrikse survives from the fringe group that were selected last weekend.

“It’s always about results. Even losing last weekend was a disaster for us. We selected the team because we thought they could beat Wales and for 78 minutes they did. I thought discipline let us down - we were probably comfortable 12-3 with 15 minutes to go.

“Ill discipline gave Wales and opportunity to get back into our half and then gave them the opportunity to get points, which put us under pressure.

“The team we selected we felt could beat Wales. It was a disaster last week. We selected 42 guys and we had a plan, because we thought these 42 guys would have the ability to beat Wales. Out plan was to beat them within the first two test matches while having the opportunity to give everyone a run.

“It wasn’t that we wanted to play guys in the second game and almost throw the test match because we don’t think we can win the test match. We thought we can beat them.”

Saturday’s result was part of a bigger picture that all Northern Hemisphere sides triumphed over SANZAAR opposition, with England and Ireland handing Australia and New Zealand defeats while Scotland bounced back to beat Argentina.

Nienaber believes sides have never been as close as they are now to each other, which will make for a very interesting World Cup next year.

“If you look at just what happened on the weekend, you can be No 1 in the world and within a blink of the eye, you can be back to No 3 in the world. That’s the nice thing of where are currently - in rugby in the top 10 ranking teams, any team can beat any team on any day.

“I don’t know if you watched France v Japan - if the hooker scored, it would have been Japan beating France. I really think it is that tight.

“If you get something wrong on the weekend - it doesn’t matter if No 1 in the world is playing number 10 in the world. If you don’t get your house in order you can lose.”