JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Coach Rassie Erasmus reassured South Africa supporters that recent history proved the test series against New Zealand can still be won after losing the opening salvo 33-16 on Saturday.
The All Blacks’ biggest ever win at Ellis Park stripped double world champion South Africa of its No. 1 test ranking and ended the Springboks’ 12-test win streak, their longest under Erasmus.
They have three more tests in their first full-scale series in 30 years and go to Cape Town next Saturday.
“We have been in many catastrophic situations in our lives,” Erasmus said.
He noted they lost the first test against the British and Irish Lions in 2021 and won that three-test series. He also noted losing their opening pool game to New Zealand at the 2019 Rugby World Cup and winning the trophy.
“There is a way out, and that’s winning three matches on the trot,” Erasmus said. “Without doubt, it puts them in a very good position which they thoroughly deserve.
“We were thoroughly beaten by a team that is now No. 1 in the world — it’ll be nice to go into the next game as the underdogs,” he quipped.
“We were dominant in the scrums but it doesn’t help you if you’re dominant in one or two parts of the game. The All Blacks were more dominant in most parts of the game.
“I’m not going to butter it up with that cliché and say we’re going to learn from this and get better. We didn’t need to learn from this; we knew what we had to do on the day — we didn’t do it.”
The Springboks failed to convert numerous chances in a dominant first half and turned with only a 13-12 lead. New Zealand was courageous and clinical and remarkably cantered home by five tries to one.
The key moment was near the hour mark when the Boks trailed 19-16 and had a scrum in front of the All Blacks’ posts. Then they conceded a penalty on their own feed.
“Even if we had kicked over that scrum penalty and we won we still made a hell of a lot of errors,” Erasmus said. “But it wasn’t a wake-up call. There were just so many things that we did wrong and that New Zealand did right — so I’m not going to say we learnt a lot of things from this match.
“There would have been a lot of things we’d have to put right even if we had scratched through this match with a one-point win.
“We didn’t play well. There were a lot of things we didn’t convert. New Zealand forced those on to us by being really intense and sharp.”
In regard to injuries, his main concerns were wingers Cheslin Kolbe and Kurt-Lee Arendse.
Arendse failed a head check after his mouthguard pinged in the first half. A mandatory stand-down for concussion made Arendse a doubt for the second test in Cape Town next weekend. Kolbe left in the second half with suspected cramp, Erasmus said.
Kolbe was perfect off the tee with four from four, and goalkicked ahead of Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu because, Erasmus said, he’s “our most accurate kicker.”
___
See AP’s full rugby coverage here
Copyright © 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.
