Rassie Erasmus has laughed off Cheslin Kolbe’s bizarre blunder against Argentina in Durban.

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Rassie: Cheslin’s brilliance outweighs ‘brainfart’

The Springbok wing gifted Los Pumas a try when, after dotting the ball down for a goal-line dropout, he unexpectedly drop-kicked it straight into play.

Argentina centre Santiago Chocobares gratefully gathered and crossed the whitewash in one of the strangest moments of the Rugby Championship clash.

Erasmus admitted there was no controversy about the call, only an uncharacteristic mistake from one of his most reliable performers.

“It’s very simple what he did wrong,” the Bok coach explained. “He wasn’t trying to kick a short kick-off, he just wanted to kick the ball to the guys who would normally clear it. But it’s a legal try – he drop-goalled it, they were five metres away, and they scored. It was a bit of a brainfart.”

The coach was quick to highlight the all-round impact of Kolbe, who made amends with a try early in the second half.

He did many other things that were great in the game,” Erasmus said. “I’ve done stupid things like that when I was playing – all of us have. But you have to remember all the brilliant things he does as well.

“I think we can forgive him for those seven points.”

Both teams now head to London ahead of Saturday’s rematch at Twickenham, which Argentina had nominated as their “home” venue.

Contepomi has backed Los Pumas to respond strongly after their setback at Kings Park.

“I’d like to think that we can fight harder,” he said. “I regard the players’ spirit and hard work highly and they work really hard in the week. We obviously couldn’t show that on the field, but I remain proud of the players for the hard work they put in week after week.

“The nice thing about sport is that you get another chance. Ours is in less than a week, and we’ll be well prepared for it.”