Springbok captain Siya Kolisi conceded the Rugby Championship title was lost at Ellis Park against the All Blacks, and that it was always going to be difficult for his team to win it in Durban by defeating the Pumas by 39 points.
The Boks began the Rugby Championship with a resounding victory over the All Blacks in Nelspruit, but for some inexplicable reason, they ceded the momentum to the All Blacks a week later.
There was tampering with the lineup, including the heinous act of benching Malcolm Max after his excellent performance at Mbombela Stadium. In addition, the Boks collectively lacked killer instinct in that game, which derailed their championship hopes and is cause for concern heading into the 2019 World Cup.
Kolisi noted that a bonus point would have been useful if they had been able to keep the score closer at Ellis Park, where they were defeated 35-23.
Kolisi stated, “We tried all in our ability to overcome the Pumas by the requisite 39 points, but looking back at our two losses, those are the missing points.”
“The losing margins in those games at Ellis Park and in Adelaide were excessively large. If we had battled harder in those games and shortened the margin of defeat, we would be having a different talk today.
“It was always going to be extremely difficult to chase down such a large score, but the one message from the game is that our squad has improved.
“As a team, we are improving, and we have won three consecutive matches, so we must carry this momentum into our end-of-year tour.
This will give us a good indication of where we need to improve as a team before the World Cup.
However, Kolisi lauded his team’s resilience to recover from a horrifying performance in Adelaide, where traditional Australian gamesmanship went under their skin.
“We were in a desperate situation and needed to win. Had we lost a week later in Sydney, we would have been eliminated from the tournament,” Kolisi explained.
“We had to pull together as a team, and we had lost some key players (like as flyhalf Handre Pollard) to injury, but the coaches devised simple strategies that didn’t really alter what we do.
“We banded together because we realized that if we lost in Sydney, it would be the end of the road for us. Now that we’ve won three in a row, we’ve taken a significant step in the right path.”
The Boks will now return to their franchise teams before embarking on a treacherous tour of Europe against Ireland, France, England, and Italy.