● Boks wary
Erasmus delights in rare victory in New Zealand but warns All Blacks will be smarting
South Africa are under no illusions about what they will face in Pretoria when they host the All Blacks in the last round of the Investec Rugby Championship in three weeks.
Successful Springboks coach Rassie Erasmus saw his side end a period of All Blacks dominance over them with a 36-34 in in Wellington on Saturday but they know the All Blacks will be fuming next time around.
Erasmus said after their losses to Argentina and Australia they had always targeted the All Blacks game as a test of how quickly they could turn things around and be real contenders come the World Cup.
“Again, we could have lost it in the last seconds but this gives us a lot of belief, which is a big compliment to New Zealand because no one beats them here and we are very privileged to have been one of those teams,” he said.
While South Africa had only 25 per cent of the ball in the game, Erasmus said the way rugby was played now teams could create tries out of nothing, and that had resulted in the luck going against them in the past whereas in Wellington, they had the luck and got the win.
“We had to defend for what felt like hours and again it was always the last pass of New Zealand that could have stuck and they could have given us a massive hiding if the passes had stuck.
“It was a good effort defensively but I also thought that the system was good,” he said.
Erasmus wasn’t surprised the All Blacks hadn’t tried to win with a dropped goal.
“That’s New Zealand, they would win it with a try, that’s the way they do things. I guess it was an option to score but that’s not the New Zealand way,” he said.
“I think in a World Cup Beauden [Barrett] would do that but not in a Championship game.”
South Africa would not get carried away with the result. They were still ranked sixth in the world and they had some catching up to do.
“We’re definitely not where we want to be. I think the players know it, the captain knows it, I know it and we have got a lot of hard work to do,” he said.
Captain Siya Kolisi said his main focus had been on ensuring the team stood up in the game and he wasn’t looking beyond that and the pride he took out of the result was that the side stood up.
“It’s an awesome day for the team and an awesome day for South Africa. This means a lot to South African people and it is a way forward for us,” he said.
Erasmus said, “Getting a result in New Zealand, again with a lot of luck, gives us hope that when we go to the World Cup which is still a year away that we can turn things around pretty quickly from even two losses like that so we’ve got another 10 Test matches in which we can try things. It gives hope that we can be competitive.”