Rassie Erasmus was left frustrated by the Springboks’ errors in the 24-17 defeat to the All Blacks at Eden Park.
South Africa quickly went into a 14-0 deficit after early tries from Emoni Narawa and Will Jordan, two scores that Erasmus described as ‘easy’.
New Zealand’s hot start meant that the Boks were chasing the game and were unable to overcome that deficit before half-time, with Handre Pollard adding only a penalty in the first 40.
The first try came through a wonderful cross-kick from Beauden Barrett to Narawa, but the winger was allowed a free run to the line after a horrid defensive action from Le Roux, while the second was a simple move off the back of the lineout with Malcolm Marx missing the tackle on Jordan.
14 points, two easy tries
Erasmus admits that after conceding such easy scores in the first half, it made it an incredibly difficult job for the Springboks to end the
“14 points, two easy tries, I mean, Malcolm played well all over but he misses that tackle, then I think Willie will accept, and all of us can accept that was a weird thing he tried to do with that tackle – I’m not sure what he was trying to do. The guy just got up and scored the try,” the head coach said.
“Then you are 14 points down and chasing your own tail.”
Still, the Bok boss was pleased by the impact that he got from his replacements and believes the decision to select a 5-3 split was vindicated by the performances of the backline players included.
We put ourselves into those positions. But then, the guys we brought on added energy and some fight. It was the right decision to go with a 5-3 split,” he continued.
“The three backline players who came on really had a good impact. I thought Cobus [Reinach] settled down the breakdown. Sacha [Feinberg-Mngomezulu] was really electric when he had the ball in hand, and Ethan [Hooker] was really good in the air for us. There were many things we got wrong, but mostly good.”
The Springboks’ lineout was poor yet again at Eden Park, winning just 78% of the ball. South Africa had similar struggles against Australia, which followed on from issues in July, too.
Lineout issues
Asked about how they can improve in that facet of the game, Erasmus pointed to the All Blacks’ issues in the same department, with Scott Robertson’s men winning just 80% of their own ball.
He also stated that his charges attempted to hit certain targets at the lineout in order to launch attacking plays, which may have hindered the set-piece.
“They also lost three lineout balls; the conditions were not easy,” he explained
We tried to do plays that we think would work and not just for the sake of winning the lineout ball and doing nothing with it, because that’s how New Zealand really stops you from getting your play going.
“So every now and then you chance your arm a little bit trying to get the ball to a certain spot, I’m not sure, I think we lost three, but it’s definitely not an individual’s problem. They more or less struggled with the lineouts too.
So it’s something that we all must fix. They must fix theirs, and we must fix ours and it’s group thing. It’s not one person doing something wrong; sometimes it’s the throw, sometimes the call.”
