Springbok head coach Rassie Erasmus refused to panic after South Africa’s heavy 33-16 defeat to the All Blacks, rejecting the idea that the loss was a "catastrophe" and mapping out a strict path to salvation. Speaking after the opening Test of the series, presented by Castle Double Malt, Erasmus was brutally honest about his team’s performance. The world champions conceded five tries to one, surrendering both the match and their world number one ranking to a clinical New Zealand side.
Despite the disappointing result at Ellis Park, Erasmus drew on historical precedent to put the loss into perspective, reminding fans that the Springboks have recovered from this exact position before.
“We have been in many catastrophic situations in our lives,” Erasmus said. “We lost the first Test against the British & Irish Lions [in 2021], and everyone said it was a catastrophe. We lost the first pool game against New Zealand in the World Cup [in 2019], and everyone said that was catastrophic, so we have been in a lot of catastrophic situations.”
Rather than panicking, the coach emphasised that the equation for the remainder of the series is now incredibly straightforward.
“We’re now in a position where if we want to win the series, we have to win three games on the trot. So, without doubt, it puts them in a very good position, which they thoroughly deserve. I wouldn’t say it’s catastrophic because there is a way out, and that’s winning three matches on the trot.”
Erasmus did not offer any soft excuses for the defeat, making it clear that the squad failed to execute strategies they had already prepared for.
“I’m not going to butter it up with that cliché and say we’re going to learn from this and get better. We didn’t need to learn from this; we knew what we had to do on the day – we didn’t do it.”
While the Springbok scrum showed glimpses of power, Erasmus noted that isolationism in rugby does not win Test matches against top-tier opposition.
“I think we were dominant in the scrums, but it doesn’t help you if you’re dominant in one or two parts of the game. The All Blacks were more dominant in most parts of the game.”
The Boks trailed by just three points (19-16) in the 58th minute, but a collapsed scrum on their own feed completely shifted the momentum. However, Erasmus refused to let that single moment mask a fundamentally flawed performance.
“Even if we had kicked over that scrum penalty and we won, we still made a helluva lot of errors. But it wasn’t a wake-up call. There were just so many things that we did wrong and that New Zealand did right – so I’m not going to say we learnt a lot of things from this match.”
Ultimately, Erasmus credited the All Blacks for their relentless pressure, which forced the world champions into uncharacteristic mistakes.
“We didn’t play well. Against a class team like New Zealand, if you don’t convert, they give you a proper hiding. With hindsight, there were a lot of things we didn’t convert; I think there were two or three big moments when we let the game go away from us. Not because we wanted to or because we wanted to make those errors, but because New Zealand forced those on to us by being really intense and sharp.”
With the All Blacks now reclaiming the top spot in the world rugby rankings, Erasmus found a bit of dark humour in the updated standings as the tour shifts away from Johannesburg.
“We were thoroughly beaten by a team that is now No 1 in the world, it’ll be nice to go into the next game as the underdogs,” he joked.
The Springboks now head to Cape Town for the second Test on Saturday, knowing exactly what is required to keep the series alive.