Rassie Erasmus did not hold back after South Africa’s collapse in the Rugby Championship opener. The Springboks lost 38-22 to Australia at Ellis Park on Saturday.
South Africa started strong. They led 22-0 inside the first quarter. The home side looked in full control.
Then the game changed. Australia grew in confidence. They won more individual battles. The Springboks lost their edge.
Australia scored 38 points without reply in the second half. The visitors silenced the Ellis Park crowd with a remarkable turnaround.
“I can try to make it sound better, but I won’t,” Erasmus told reporters. “The effort was maybe there, but the accuracy was not. It was a bad loss in a bad way. Not against a bad team, but we did not fight until the end. That is not what we want to give South Africa.”
Erasmus admitted that his players’ body language disappointed him. “There was a stage where I felt our heads were dropping and shoulders were slumping,” he said.
Australia controlled the breakdown. This has troubled South Africa all season as they try to play a more open, running style. The looser approach left them exposed on the floor.
Erasmus pointed to other problems. “We did not scrum them. They beat us in the lineouts,” he said. “In the first 25 minutes, I thought we were really good in the breakdown. After Siya Kolisi got injured and Marco van Staden went off for a head-injury check, it slipped away.”
The coach did not spare himself either. “They beat us in most departments. We as coaches got it terribly wrong. We must look at ourselves first,” he said.
The two teams meet again in Cape Town next Saturday. Erasmus has already spoken to his players about the next squad, but he suggested changes could come.
“We know we will take a lot of flak this week,” he said. “We take credit when we do well. Now we must take the flak when we do badly. We already picked next week’s team, but that will probably change. We must rethink it. They tactically outsmarted us and physically dominated us.”