Heel laaste on the Rugby Championship log following their flattering 25-17 defeat to Australia on Saturday, Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber is at a loss to explain his team’s latest setback.
Enjoying 54 percent of the ball possession, 51 percent of the territory and up against a team who conceded 16 penalties, including two yellow cards to one, the Springboks could only score their first try of the match five minutes from the end.
In fact, replacement looseforward Kwagga Smith scored twice in the last five minutes to bring some respectability to the scoreline.
In a match that saw his team waste a number of opportunities on attack - especially towards the end of the first half, while also losing the collision battle, Nienaber, in the immediate aftermath of their horror show, could not pinpoint exactly what went wrong.
Asked about his team’s slow starts, which saw them trail New Zealand 15-3 at half time in their previous match, Nienaber, whose conceded straight from kickoff this time around, says: “I can’t put my finger on that. I don’t think you can control a good start… you can’t plan for a good start. You can plan to bring intensity. I don’t know why that happened to be honest.”
🎥 WATCH: It was not the Boks' best, but they finished strong despite going down against Australia - highlights: https://t.co/n4q4rzHWCL#StrongerTogether #StrongerForever #AUSvRSA #CastleRugbyChampionship pic.twitter.com/ATRk0qjsUm
— Springboks (@Springboks) August 27, 2022
Of not being able to convert their opportunities into points, he says: “We didn’t capitalise. It is frustrating, but we are all emotional now and we have to have a good look and see why we camped in their 22 in the back-end of first half and we didn’t get any conversion to points.”
Promising a proper review, Nienaber and his team will look to bounce back at the Allianz Stadium against the same opposition next week.
dudley.carstens@inl.co.za