Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus has described the nail-biting 29-28 loss against Argentina in the Rugby Championship in Santigo del Estero on Saturday as hurting.
This despite the Boks starting the match on a positive note, and at some period led 17-0, but however allowed the Pumas back into the match.
The Boks had an excellent opportunity to win the match when replacement Manie Libbok had a penalty two minutes from time to win it for the team but pulled his attempt wide.
“It hurts a lot.
It’s putting a positive spin on things to say the match in Mbombela could be fitting as a final to the competition because we must first get over this result.
We have to point fingers at ourselves as coaches and management too, but that said, we have a chance to redeem ourselves next week and to finish the Castle Lager Rugby Championship on a high note,” said Erasmus.
The coach said the team started the match strong and was supposed to build on that momentum throughout.
He however acknowledged that the Pumas displayed a powerful performance against the Boks and refused to place the blame on Libbok.
“It was a great match by Argentina, while we made crucial mistakes at vital times, so all credit to them, they deserved the win.
They knew they had a chance to win the competition with a victory, and you could see they were going for the bonus-point, and they really brought it to us.
If we didn’t miss the penalty kick in the end, there would have been smiles all around,” explained Erasmus.
Meanwhile, the coach’s comments were echoed by captain Salmaan Moerat, who described the Boks performance as disappointing and not good enough.
“There were parts of the game when we put them under pressure, and after the yellow card we took our foot off the pedal.
Simply said, it was not good enough from us out there.
Argentina is a tough team to play at home, and as we said in the week, if you do not pitch up fully, they can punish you, and they showed that,” highlighted Moerat.
The win sees the Pumas move up to 14 points on the standings, while the Boks, who got a losing bonus point, are now on 19.
The teams will now meet for a competition final in Nelspruit next weekend.
