Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus and captain Jesse Kriel were both bitterly disappointed by the team’s 24-17 defeat against the All Blacks in Auckland on Saturday, which dashed their hopes of beating the hosts for the first time at Eden Park since 1937, and attributed the result to 15 poor minutes of play in the match.
According to a statement issued by SA Rugby, they both lauded the team’s fightback from 14-3 down at halftime to snatch a losing bonus point and said they would regroup and try to fix the errors that cost them in the coming week before the teams meet again next Saturday in Wellington.
“We were 14 points behind after two easy tries, and we found ourselves chasing our own tails, and that was in the rain as well,” said Erasmus.
“I thought the replacements brought energy, and we fought back well, but it’s tough to win if you are 14 points behind.”
Erasmus singled out individual errors as one of the complications in the match: “We made two individual errors and they scored tries, and the other times they had to grind, so it’s frustrating.
“It’s not always the same players making the mistakes, and some of them were stupid errors. But as coaches, we pick the players, and as management, we have to sometimes put up our hands and say we got it wrong.”
