Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus has blamed individual errors for his side’s 23-18 defeat to the Wallabies at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane on Saturday.
The Springboks were 15-7 up only for a a couple of bad mistakes to creep in to their game derailing their hopes of gaining a crucial away win.
Erasmus admitted that hooker Bongi Mbonambi, who was replaced after over-cooking a lineout that led to Matt Toomua’s game-changing try, was “struggling”.
“Bongi has not played a lot and you could see he was struggling,” Erasmus told Sport 24.
“You can ask the guys, the deal is everyone plays as long as he can and as soon as you start struggling, the sub comes on. I substituted my captain [Siya Kolisi] a few times during the June Tests.
“We tell the guys to empty the tank, see how far you can go and then we will bring the guy on the bench on and he will try to finish the match. It definitely was not for the overthrow because that was more a combination between Siya and the guys. It definitely wasn’t his fault.
“To gift 14 points on a platter to a team, you’re (always) going to struggle to win the game.
“I thought our mauling went very well compared to last weekend, the scrums were good in the first half, but then there were moments when we lost vital scrums and lineouts, so it was a mixed bag of different mistakes,” was Erasmus’ assessment of the match.
Having more than held their own in the opening stanza, the Boks faded away badly in terms of the possession and territory stakes in the second half.
“We were awful in the second half and played better in the opening half,” stated the Springbok mentor.
Erasmus admitted that facing the New Zealanders in their own backyard will be a daunting task: “We are playing the best team in the world, we’ve just lost two matches in a row so the pressure is on us.”