Springboks Coach Rassie Erasmus has described South Africa’s Rugby Championship defeat to Argentina as simply, embarrassing. The Springboks lost 32-19 to the Pumas in Mendoza on Saturday night. Erasmus was brutally honest about his team’s performance, post-match.
He said that there were no excuses since they knew exactly what to expect from the Argentines on their home turf. “It wasn’t disappointing, it was embarrassing, the same team one change from last week where we dominated for 80 minutes and we came here and we play like this, it is embarrassing and we only have to point the fingers at ourselves firstly as coaches and as players. We have to fix it, whatever the consequences, we must look at ourselves, and we can’t play like this.”
Erasmus will have to re-think his strategy for South Africa’s next few matches in the Rugby Championship following their loss. With clashes against Australia in Brisbane and New Zealand in Wellington up next for the South Africans in the championship, the coach will have to seriously reconsider their game plans.
For him one of the most crucial weaknesses in the Springboks performance on Saturday night was their inability to finish.
“I think it is calmness, a forward pass and a three men overlap, a tap on and lose the ball on the try-line and then a line break and you don’t score from that, it’s simply just finishing off . You won’t get two of those opportunities against New Zealand and you must use both of them, we probably got 10 today (Saturday) that we didn’t use. It is finishing, staying calm and recognising that there’s only going to be a few in big Test matches.”
