Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus hailed his side’s overall performance in their 23-12 win over the Wallabies at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth on Saturday.
The result ensured that South Africa would finish as Rugby Championship runners-up to the All Blacks after the latter’s 35-17 victory over Argentina on Sunday morning.
“We’re starting to win games now after making changes, which is a positive,” said Erasmus. “Obviously we didn’t play tactically well; I thought the guts the boys showed in the second-half proves that the character [in the side]is great.”
The former Bok flanker pinpointed their encouraging set piece, whilst highlighting an improved showing without ball in hand as another enhancement of the Bok’s overall game.
“I thought the lineouts weren’t that great. I think we contested well on theirs and on our own they [Australia] really contested well. The guys made good plans for the second-half; the lineouts were much better.
“I think we’ve grown as a team. Especially with the system we have, if you’ve made a few mistakes on defence at the highest level I don’t think it’s something you can read in a book or do training sessions to get it right. It’s only by making mistakes [that]you make less mistakes and eventually get it right. Overall the guys are getting the hang of it [the Bok defensive system].”
Bok skipper Siya Kolisi called the support his team had received in the build up to the Test match as “beautiful” and thanked the people of PE for their vociferous backing during the contest itself.
“People love the Springboks and they love rugby on this side of the world. Our open training sessions were amazing [this week]. How the people came out; we could feel it during the game. Especially when the times were tough we could hear them doing the Mexican Wave. It’s just beautiful; it means a lot to us as a team”.
Meanwhile, under-fire Australian coach Michael Cheika has insisted that his side are on the right track in spite of a poor campaign that has seen them win just one-game thus far.
“I’m not happy losing ever. I’m not saying I’m happy. I think that we’ve made progress from the last game, definitely. Just around the energy in the game and the resilience we showed in coming back in the game.
“I thought a fair few things didn’t go our way to be honest around the decision-making. But we still had plenty of opportunities to nail. I think if you look at the game, the amount of attacking setups we had, there were plenty of them.”
South Africa will prep before heading to Pretoria to take on New Zealand, while Australia head to Salta in Argentina in the final round of the competition.
