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Erasmus rues Springboks 'gift' to Wallabies
By Ben Spratt
Springboks coach Rassie Erasmus felt South Africa gifted Australia a foothold in Saturday's clash even before their second-half no-show.
The Wallabies recorded their first win of this year's Rugby Championship by triumphing 23-18 despite trailing at the break, with the Springboks tailing off badly following the restart.
While the winning points came from penalties in the second half, Erasmus was most frustrated by the errors that handed Michael Hooper and Matt Toomua tries.
"To gift 14 points on a platter to a team, you're going to struggle to win the game," said Erasmus.
"I thought our mauling went very well compared to last time, the scrums were good in the first half, but then there were moments when we lost vital scrums and line-outs, so it was a mixed bag of different mistakes.
"We were awful in the second half and played better in the opening half."
Despite losses against Australia and Argentina, South Africa still sit second on the Championship table with six competition points, and have a points differential of just -5 following their first three fixtures.
South Africa now face the unenviable task of getting their campaign back on track in New Zealand next weekend as they risk a third successive defeat.
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Latest Comments
You are right. My comment was not meant to be a complaint. It's more of a warning to other teams that once this Bok team gets everything together, they will be close to unstoppable.
Go to commentsDifference is SA lost by a solitary point in both losses, and in the case of Argentina, away after making 11 changes to the team.
AB losses were by larger margins and lost at home, playing arguably their best sides.
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