Springboks have a mountain to climb

The Boks’ upcoming away fixtures in Australasia now loom as massive challenges.

The Springboks will have to have a hard look at themselves after they disappointingly went down 32-19 to Argentina in Mendoza on Saturday evening in the Rugby Championship. Their defence was poor, they were error-laden and their tactics questionable as they lost their third Test in six matches under new coach Rassie Erasmus.

With much tougher assignments against Australia and New Zealand to come away from home next month, the Boks will have to find another gear or two, and probably another game plan if they are to find more consistency. World champions New Zealand look a cut above the rest after recording back-to-back bonus-point wins over Australia the last two weekends.

The Boks may have won against Argentina the week before in Durban, but it was far from convincing, and it was after a poor start – something that was characteristic in the opening two wins against England in the June Test window.

“I’m not going to look for positives after a performance like that. We have no excuses, we knew exactly what to expect, we prepared for it but we just didn’t handle it,” said Erasmus.

It is just more than a year until next year’s World Cup in Japan. Erasmus and company need to find their mojo soon if they are to make sure we are on the right path.