Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus welcomed a morale-boosting victory over Australia in Cape Town on Saturday, but said the hopes of retaining the Rugby Championship still rested on victory in New Zealand.
Having said that, Erasmus will surely be pleased to have also seen the All Blacks suffer an unexpected loss to Argentina, with now just two log points separating first and fourth in the Rugby Championship standings.
HERE IS HOW THE LATEST RUGBY CHAMPIONSHIP LOG LOOKS AFTER SPRINGBOKS’ WIN AND ALL BLACKS’ DEFEAT
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.
“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.”
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.
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE LATEST RESULTS?
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