PERTH, Australia (AP) — South Africa coach Rassie Erasmus and first-time captain André Esterhuizen refused to blame the 13 changes to the starting XV for the 42-38 loss to Australia in a wacky rugby match on Sunday.
The world champion Springboks trailed 24-17 at halftime, unloaded the Bomb Squad all at once, and fell further behind at 42-17 with 10 minutes left. But four yellow cards against Australia opened a route back and South Africa scored three converted tries but ran out of time.
Erasmus chose a new-look team two weeks after winning the brutal four-test series against New Zealand but packed the bench with front-liners Malcolm Marx, Ox Nché, Wilco Louw, Jasper Wiese, Lood de Jager and Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu.
“We rolled the dice a bit, and some guys haven’t played a lot together in a long time but it’s not an excuse,” Erasmus said.
“We picked the team and we had a game plan, and I thought we had a chance at the end but the better team won on the night. It’s sad to lose but it’s not because we’ve been together too long. It’s because we didn’t play well enough.”
Esterhuizen also didn’t believe any lack of cohesion undermined their performance.
“I don’t think it was too disjointed, I think the discipline was the key factor that let us down,” he said. “All of us trained together for the last 18, 19 weeks so we know the plan well, but it was just about executing.”
Despite everything, including disruptions with the match officials’ communications and the match clock, the Springboks could have won in the end as the yellow cards depleted the Wallabies and opened the field.
“I was very proud of the fight the boys showed at the end, but we definitely need to be better than that,” Esterhuizen said. “At that stage, we were concentrating on getting one try, getting another try, taking it step by step. But we never should’ve put ourselves in that position.”
Erasmus said: “We lost in a Springboks jersey against Australia and I think with all the disruptions and things that there were we’ve got nobody else to blame but ourselves. We didn’t play well enough tonight to beat a stronger team.”
Their second loss in three tests to Australia was a valuable experience, Erasmus said, with their defense of the Rugby World Cup in Australia only a year away.
“Australia are a good team and they’ve definitely improved a lot. They played at home and they’re the World Cup hosts next year,” he said.
“We might meet them in a vital playoff game, and it was nice to get a taste of them tonight. When we play them next year we’ll know a little bit more about each other. I’m not going to say it was a case of lessons learned but I think it was a valuable experience.”
‘Got to hold your nerve’
Meanwhile, new Wallabies coach Les Kiss said the crazy finish shouldn’t detract from how well they overcame South Africa for more than an hour.
“Yeah, a bizarre finish, but I don’t want us to forget about the first 60,” Kiss said. “I think it was a really important step up for us to take that game forward, control the game and really be brave and attack the game.”
Australia’s 25-point lead was whittled down to four at the end and Kiss admitted the heart rate was up but it was important to give the appearance of calm in the coaching box.
“Credit to my coaching team, they were just trying to get the right message (to the team) in the right way,” Kiss said. “Apparently, all the boys behind the poles, when we were under stress, they were very calm as well, which is very pleasing. In those moments, you’ve just got to hold your nerve and stay clear about what you want to do and I think they did that.”
Captain Harry Wilson contributed to the late mayhem with a yellow card and was particularly pleased with the effort of the backs in the first hour. Hunter Paisami was brought into midfield and Joseph-Aukuso Sua’ali’i moved to the wing.
“I just loved the way they backed themselves,” Wilson said. “It wasn’t pretty early on, a few errors, but we said we’d keep going and keep backing ourselves and we’ve got some special players in that backline.
“Give them some ball in space and they can do some special things.”
See AP’s full rugby coverage here
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