South Africa character made up for mistakes - Erasmus
Rassie Erasmus praised South Africa's character after they came through an error-strewn performance to beat England 23-12 and wrap up the three-Test series.
The Springboks had won the opener a week earlier, but they initially struggled on Saturday and found themselves 12-0 down to the touring side.
However, Erasmus' men battled away to score 23 unanswered points and leave their coach happy, even if he could acknowledge that mistakes had been made.
"Being behind by only 12 points and not 24 points helped a bit, but we got our composure back quicker than last week," Erasmus said afterwards.
"There were still a lot of mistakes, but I thought the character the guys showed was enough to win the game. What the players learned last week and again this week will help them going into the future.
"But we don't want to start like that again. [There were] bad penalties that we gave away, bad discipline, a lot of things that we did wrong."
And Erasmus, new to the job for these mid-year internationals, is now glad to have the opportunity to experiment with his team for the third Test.
"It is nice to have the series wrapped up. Next week we want to try and win 3-0," he said.
"But we will try a few new things because now we have the opportunity to put different guys in different positions under pressure."
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It’s a good, timely wake up call for NZ Rugby (seem to be a few of them lately!) - sort out the bureaucratic nonsense at board level. We can’t expect to stay the number one option without keeping fans/players engaged. We’ve obviously been bleeding players to league for years but can’t let the floodgates open (although I think this headline is hyperbolic as it’s a result of a recent Warriors pathways system where they are tracking things more closely) Understand the need to focus boys on rugby if they’re at a proud rugby school too, don’t think it’s harsh at all re Barakat in Hamilton. Reward the committed players with squad positions. An elite 1st XV system in NZ has done more for league than they even realise, think it’s good to protect our game further.
Go to commentsDon’t pay a blind bit of notice to Lukie… he likes the sound of his own voice and is always looking for something controversial to say. He has been banging on about Leinster's defensive system all season like he knows something Jacques Nienebar doesn’t. Which is the reason why he didn’t apply for the job obviously
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