VIDEO - Rassie: 'We will take the flak, we were dog s***'
VIDEO: A dejected Springbok coach, Rassie Erasmus, did not hide his frustration after his team was outclassed by the Wallabies at Ellis Park on Saturday.
Erasmus gave a big sigh and conceded that the post-match press conference was probably one of the most embarrassing he had ever done.
While the Bok coach did not shy away from the magnitude of the Springboks’ dramatic demise in the second half, he didn’t want to blame the players, stressing that responsibility lies with the management team.
“This is probably one of the most embarrassing press conferences I’ve done in a while,” he said.
“Not because we were awful, but they were really good. And I don’t want to put the old cliché out there, credit to them. They were good, but we made them better with our performance. To be 22-0 up, we did the same against Italy, when 28-3 up, and then we let teams back in.
“We gave them one or two soft tries.
“They were just better than us on the day in most departments. We didn’t scrum them. They beat us in the lineouts.
“For the first 25 minutes, we were good at the breakdown, but after Siya [Kolisi] got injured and Marco [van Staden] had to go for an HIA [Head Injury Assessment], they bullied us there too. We, as coaches, got it terribly wrong.
“It wasn’t just tactical – they also physically dominated us. The longer the game went on, the stronger they got. At altitude, that’s supposed to be us. It shows what [Wallabies coach] Joe [Schmidt] is building there.
“From now until next Saturday, we’ll take a lot of flak. When we take the credit when we are doing well, we must take the flak when we’re doing badly. We’re very disappointed, feeling bad for our supporters and our players.
“A player doesn’t just do what he wants out there; we guide them and we pick the combinations. If it doesn’t work, maybe the combinations were wrong, maybe the plans were wrong, maybe the half-time talk was terrible.
“I’m not smiling because I’m happy – it’s more of an embarrassed smile,” the coach admitted.
Erasmus agreed that the Boks lost their way after leading 22-0 after the first 17 minutes.
“Grant [Williams] had so many breaks, Manie had so many breaks, Edwill [van der Merwe] too. That changes games, but you also have to realise somewhere in the game that it’s not quite coming off.
“Their kick-to-ruck ratio was really good. We only kicked nine times in the second half. Maybe the players felt there was space, but that’s coaching, that’s on us. We must still build the innings. Twenty-two nil is not winning a game.
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“The saddest thing is five [log] points for them, and we didn’t even fight back to take the bonus point away. So we’re on zero, they’re on five.
“I can butter this up to sound cool and respectful, but we were just really dog s**t on the day,” he stated, to the surprise of all in attendance at the post-match press conference.
Erasmus said the team for next week’s clash against the Wallabies in Cape Town has already been selected, but added that changes are on the cards.
“We had already picked next week’s team, but that will probably change a little bit because we want to get Ethan Hooker in, we want to give Canan [Moodie] a start, we want to give Krappie [Morne van den Berg] a start. We’ll have to rethink it.”
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