‘Takes me right back to 49-0’
DURBAN: After the Kings Park catastrophe at the claws of the Pumas, it was left to the two elder statesmen of Springbok rugby, Schalk Burger and Bryan Habana, to explain what had gone wrong in a 37-25 mauling that has left South Africa’s World Cup preparations in tatters.
Habana and Burger are both 32 years of age and have 175 Test caps between them, and they sat before the media like stunned mulletts, deers before the headlamps ... describe it as you will, the vastly experienced pair said that they had “no clue” as to what had gone wrong in a match dominated from first whistle until last by a South American team that had never beaten the Boks before in 20 attempts.
Burger bravely said: “I wish I could put my finger on it. It was very poor. It was one of those days when you can just feel the team is collectively flat from the start.
“Jean (de Villiers) and I asked a lot from the players and got no response. There was just nothing to draw on. The tank was empty, we were just poor and could not get ourselves out of the rut, and it became harder and harder as we found ourselves chasing the game for 75 minutes.”
Habana said this defeat equalled the hapless showing of the Boks in the infamous 49-0 defeat to the Wallabies in Brisbane in 2006, even superseding the 2011 quarter-final loss to the Australians in Wellington in the World Cup of 2011.
“This is as low as anything I have experienced in my career and it takes me right back to 490,” Habana said.
“Nothing went right, there was no response, a complete lack of energy. As individuals and South Africans, we let the country down not so much because we lost, but because of the manner in which we played.
“There had been so much excitement in this group after the encouraging performances of the fortnight of matches against Australia and New Zealand ... but now all we are left with is extreme introspection on an individual basis because you can’t have your leaders on the field asking for a response and getting nothing from the players, and that is from one to 23,” a broken Habana said.
South Africa’s leading try scorer took no consolation in having boosted his tally out to 59 in the three-tries-to-four loss, and he acknowledged that play- ers such as he and Burger had to ignite the Boks into form sooner rather than later.
“The next 48 hours will see the senior players leading a lot of introspection in the group to see where we are as players and as a team, and whether we really believe we can go on and do something special in a few weeks time,” Habana said. “We as senior players take full responsibility for this loss.
“I know the coach and his staff have given us everything we need to perform at our best and we have let them and all South Africans down,” Habana said. “The Pumas, to their credit, played positively and we were caught asleep at crucial moments, and that can only come down to individual con- centration and commitment, and that is why the players have to ask themselves if they were truly in the right frame of mind for this game.
Habana agreed that the Boks cannot expect to be realistic World Cup contenders on form that has seen them lose three Tests in a row and four of their last seven matches.
“It is not the end of the world, it is not the end of our World Cup ambitions, but we have to be really hard on ourselves if we want to be in contention in a few weeks time,” the wing said.
Burger added: “It was bloody frustrating, a terrible day at the office. Your rugby career would be longer if you missed games like this but credit to the Pumas who put pressure on us from the start and made us chase the game, but what was so worrying was the error count. It was very frustrating to be part of that game.”
Burger said that the Boks would move heaven and earth to rectify the result in Buenos Aries on Saturday in a post-Rugby Championship friendly.
“While we must be very hard on ourselves, we must not forget the positives out of the games against Australia and New Zealand,” he said.
“We can’t lie down and be trampled over. We have to accept we were poor, take it on the chin and rise to the challenge this week and initiate some momentum ahead of the World Cup.”