PARIS (AP) — Falling to France on Black Friday is going to haunt South Africa rugby coach Rassie Erasmus for at least a week.
The Springboks lost to France 21-19 for only the second time in 16 years, breaking their unbeaten run in the Nations Championship and likely also costing them a place in the final and their No. 1 world ranking.
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Erasmus praised France while saying the Springboks had only themselves to blame for dropping a match in which they were the heavy favorite. But they never led and trailed at halftime for the second time this year.
“We didn’t play well and I’m not going to make excuses,” Erasmus said. “They were able to seize every opportunity that came their way, unlike us. However, we also had opportunities, but we missed passes and made too many mistakes.
“The French pushed us to make mistakes, to force our rugby, to get us out of what we wanted to put in place. But it’s a problem that concerns the staff, not the players. The players did what they could. It’s up to us, the coaches, to find solutions. I’m going to think about all of this all night and probably all week.
“The match was extremely intense … a real battle. The French won it on the gong. And, believe me, it hurts to lose in this way.”
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Erasmus believed they overplayed their crushing dominance in the scrums. The Boks were earning a penalty from almost every scrum, especially in the second half. But Erasmus thought instead of setting another scrum they should have aimed for more corner lineouts. Their maul was also unstoppable.
“We should not systematically wait for the referee to award us penalties,” he said. “In the scrum, in particular, we should have reacted differently, perhaps by kicking more into the corners.”
It was announced an hour before kickoff that he swapped his front rows, benching the starters and starting the reserves, like he did before the second Greatest Rivalry test against New Zealand in Cape Town in August. His reason then was because the weather was drier than expected.
Rain wasn’t in the forecast on Friday. He sent in his prime front row of Ox Nché, Malcolm Marx and Wilco Louw in the 35th minute after they went 21-7 behind.
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“We announced our team on Monday but then we thought maybe we had to change something,” Erasmus said. “This explains this last-minute change in the front row. We weren’t yet fully sure of our decision until the captain’s run yesterday afternoon.”
The Springboks go to Ireland next weekend before the playoffs. They will know on Saturday, after New Zealand play Wales, whether they have lost their lead in the northern hemisphere pool and No. 1 ranking.
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