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Erasmus: Wallabies clash now a must-win after 'unacceptable' Pumas loss
By Iain Strachan
South Africa coach Rassie Erasmus has labelled his team's next match against Australia as "win at all costs" after they suffered a 32-19 defeat away to Argentina.
The Springboks opened their Rugby Championship campaign with an unconvincing victory at home to the Pumas, who responded with an emphatic first-half performance to set up the win in Mendoza on Saturday.
Up next for South Africa is a crunch meeting with Australia, winless after two defeats to New Zealand, in Brisbane on September 8, when Erasmus knows there will be no margin for error against a desperate Wallabies team.
"This was a terrible performance - it was unacceptable and we cannot perform like that in a Springbok jersey," Erasmus said.
"It is not just the players' fault, I am the coach and I must make sure we don't perform like that. We are all disappointed - not just with the defensive effort but in the first 15, 20 minutes we had so many opportunities to score tries.
"We did not capitalise on it and we look like a team playing club rugby. I must point the finger at myself - when you play like this then the coach must be doing something badly wrong during the week.
"We have to turn it around - we had certain plans we wanted to try against Australia but that is out the window now. We have to get back to winning ways and it is win at all costs now. This loss puts us back quite a bit. We wanted to win this game and then give a few guys a chance against Australia.
"We can't do that now, we lost - so now we have to beat Australia."
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Latest Comments
There is this thing going around against Siya Kolisi where they don't want him to be known as the best national captain ever, so they strike him down in ratings permanently whenever they can. They want McCaw and reckons he is the best captain ever. I disagree.
Just like they refuse to see SA as the best team and some have even said that should the Boks win a third WC in a row, they will still not be the best team ever. Even if they win every game between now and the WC. That is some serious hate coming SA's way.
Everyone forget how the McCaw AB's intimidated refs, was always on the wrong side, played on the ground etc. Things they would never have gotten away with today. They may have a better win ratio, but SA build depth, not caring about rank inbetween WC's until this year.
They weren't as bad inbetween as people claim, because non e of their losses was big ones and they almost never faced the strongest Bok team outside of the WC, allowing countries like France and Ireland to rise to the top unopposed.
Rassie is still at it, building more depth, getting more young stars into the fold. By the time he leaves (I hope never) he will leave a very strong Bok side for the next 15- 20 years. Not everyone will play for 20 years, but each year Rassie acknowledge the young stars and get them involved and ready for international rugby.
Not everyone will make it to the WC, but those 51/52 players will compete for those spots for the WC. They will deliver their best. The future of the Boks is in very safe hands. The only thing that bothers me is Rassie's health. If he can overcome it, rugby looks dark for the rest of the rugby world. He is already the greatest coach in WR history. By the time he retires, he will be the biggest legend any sport has ever seen
Go to commentsWas it? I just brought it up in some of my posts to rub it in that the AB last year nearly put 100 on a top 6N side lol
I agree to be honest. The biggest key to me that they might be jadded was none of them had mom performances, or even as good as their last three games.
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