Ill-discipline cost Boks, says coach

SPRINGBOK coach Jacques Nienaber says their ill-discipline cost them in their 28-26 Rugby Championship loss to Australia in Gold Coast yesterday.

The Boks’ winless run Down Under, where they haven’t won since 2013, continued as Quade Cooper completed a stunning performance with a penalty after the hooter to give the struggling Wallabies the win.

While the Boks scored three tries to the hosts’ one, they conceded 11 penalties, while they also missed 21 tackles – an uncharacteristic statistic for the South Africans.

In stark contrast to Cooper, Handre Pollard had a poor performance as he struggled with his decision-making, handling and, most importantly, his goal-kicking as he hooked two penalties and a conversion.

Speaking after the game, Nienaber said that the Boks’ high penalty count gave Cooper, who hadn’t played for the Wallabies since 2017, the platform to punish them.

“We scored three tries to one, but gave them 23 points off the kicking tee. That’s the reason why we lost,” Nienaber said.

“I thought we were quite dominant in the first 20 minutes. We probably had control of the game, but we lost control in the last 20. They got a bit of a lead on us. I thought we did brilliantly to get back into the game. We lost it in the 82nd minute because of our discipline. We conceded a penalty. They played well. Australia deserved to win.

“I don’t think we were great. Saying that, I don’t want to take anything away from Australia. We were a little off our game, especially our discipline.

“We created opportunities. Sbu (Nkosi) was over the tryline, Lukhanyo (Am) was over the tryline and almost scored. There were opportunities to maybe get two more tries. We didn’t finish, so it wasn’t a polished performance. We will have to fix those things and especially look at our discipline.”

Bok captain Siya Kolisi added that it was always going to be a challenging Test in Australia, also adding that their discipline let them down.

“We’ll never use not being ready as an excuse – when we step onto the field, we have to be ready,” said Kolisi.

TABRAIZ Shamsi of South Africa celebrates taking the wicket of Dasun Shanaka during the second T20 International against Sri Lanka at Pramadasa International Cricket Stadium in Colombo yesterday.