Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus welcomed a morale-boosting victory over Australia at DHL Stadum in Cape Town on Saturday, but said the hopes of retaining the Castle Lager Rugby Championship still rested on victory in New Zealand.
The Springboks will take a 36-man squad on tour next week for tests in Auckland and Wellington which remained pivotal in the Boks’ hopes, he said.
“It was far from a perfect performance but sometimes just getting back on the horse is the most important thing,” said Erasmus of the 30-22 victory.
“After a loss you lose a little bit of belief, even though we had won eight on the trot and nine out of ten, but you do lose a little bit of belief, so the big thing for us was to try and win and not let them get a bonus point.
“We didn’t take all our opportunities, but we got eight points more than them so that’s satisfying.
“But we always had to go to New Zealand, and beat them twice, if we want to have any chance – so nothing’s changed.”
Both teams scored three tries but Bok flyhalf Handre Pollard was perfect from the tee with six out of six kicks at goal to be the difference between the sides in a match, while he also moved past 800 Test points, only the second South African to achieve this feat.
Erasmus was impressed by the speed and elusiveness of the Wallaby outside backs and believed the match would be a good “dry run” for what was to come in New Zealand.
“We found them extremely difficult to beat, like the Lions did in those two Test matches, and James O’Connor missed two very vital kicks which would have made it extremely tight in the last few minutes,” he said.
“Last week I would have said we got a two or a three out of ten for our performance in the second half, but I think this was a six or a seven performance.
“There were some handling errors – although the conditions played a part in that – but their back three was fantastic and this game gave us a good taste of what we are going to see when we play New Zealand because they have lightning backs as well.”
Erasmus admitted that the Springboks were more at home in matches of a less free-running nature: “We played a more balanced game this week. I don’t think we created 50 percent of what we created last weekend but we ground the game out, when we thought it was going to be a grind.
“We are trying to please our crowds by winning and playing a better brand and sometimes we get it wrong like we did last weekend, but sometimes when we get into game likes this where it’s a real grind we tend to find a way.
“We tend to struggle when it’s an open, free-running game – it’s beautiful rugby but you lose on the scoreboard. Overall, we’ll learn from this and hopefully the tighter the matches get, we’ll get more comfortable with it as we have been in the past.”
The Springboks are next in action against New Zealand at Eden Park in Auckland on 6 September.
Old Orange Eyes
Australia beat England by 45 runs in the first ever cricket Test as well as the Centenary Test in 1977. Australia beat England in the first ever Test match by 45 runs held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in 1877. Hundred years later the opposition were the same, the venue was the same and the result as well!
Mud Pie Man
The name for the sport is believed to have originated from “criquet”, the Old French term for stick, goal, or post. It may also have come from “kricke”, a Middle Dutch term for stick or staff.