JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) -Rassie Erasmus pulled no punches as he laid into his South Africa side following their second half capitulation in the stunning 38-22 loss to Australia in their Rugby Championship opener at Ellis Park on Saturday.
The Springboks were cruising as they led 22-0 inside the first quarter, but while Australia grew into the game and began to win the individual contests, the home side wilted in the second half as the visitors scored 38 unanswered points.
“I can try to butter it up and bottle it up to sound cool and respectful. The effort was maybe there but the accuracy or precision wasn’t,” Erasmus told reporters.
“It was a bad loss in a bad way. Not against a bad team, we just didn’t have fight right until the end, and that’s not what we want to give South Africa.
“There was a stage where I felt our heads were dropping and shoulders were slumping, and that was part of the disappointment.”
Australia dominated at the breakdown, an area that has troubled the Springboks this season as they try to move to a more expansive, running style of play, which makes for a looser contest on the floor.
“We didn’t scrum them and they beat us in the lineouts,” Erasmus said. “In the first 25 minutes, I thought we were really good in the breakdown. After that, when Siya (Kolisi) got injured and Marco (van Staden) went for a (head-injury assessment), it slipped away.
“They beat us in most departments. We as coaches got it terribly wrong and we must look firstly at ourselves.”
The two teams meet again in Cape Town on Saturday and Erasmus, who has already announced his side for the match to the players, says there may be a rethink.
“We know from now until next Saturday we are going to take a lot of flak. We take the credit when we do well, now we must take the flak when we do badly.
“We already picked next week’s team…but that will probably change.
“We’ll have to rethink it. They tactically outsmarted us and physically dominated us.”
(Reporting by Nick Said; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)
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