Springbok captain Siya Kolisi rued the missed opportunities as the Springboks suffered a disappointing 13-8 defeat against the top-ranked team in the world, Ireland.
Kolisi refused to be pulled down by the defeat and said: “There were players who haven’t played under this pressure before.
Kolisi agreed that the game was lost on the ground: "I thought they were more accurate than us today, a bit faster to the breakdown. We knew it was coming. We got to their 22, but the opportunities we lost were all through the breakdown. Us as players take full responsibility. Hopefully we meet them again but we need to be better with those opportunities."
With the Springboks having won their opening matches against Scotland and Romania, the match in Paris was not a do-or-die, however, it does mean they have to register a win against Tonga next week Sunday to advance to the quarter-final.
Looking forward to their next match, the Bok skipper said: “We are going to work hard on the things that we need to improve. We didn’t lose the game in all departments, so we have to be better in general. The reality is if you don’t take your points at this level, this is what happens.”
"We will lift our heads and prepare for next week against Tonga. We’ve been in this position before, so the quicker we get over it the better.”
"Obviously this game would have taken the pressure off going into the last round but the pressure is now on us to beat Tonga to get out of the pool. That is the sole thing we will focus on. We are lucky we have an eight-day turnaround to do our reviews, look at areas that didn’t go our way, what plans worked and what didn’t work, and take it from there."
