All Blacks win has 'raised the bar now' says Faf De Klerk

The Springboks win over the All Blacks in Wellington may have given hope to everyone ahead of next year’s World Cup, but halfback Faf de Klerk believes it has raised the bar for the Springboks own game, showing how much potential there is within the group.

“That win has really shown us what our potential is and it is good for the guys to realise what the potential they have. We have raised the bar now and now we need to go out and improve on that,” he said during a press conference ahead of the Wallabies test.

“It gives the whole country belief in us and in the team structure as well so I think if we can back up that performance this weekend it will help us going forward to the World Cup.

The stunning victory came after the Springboks were widely criticised for two back-to-back losses to Argentina and Australia. De Klerk explained that the side is creating chances but just hasn’t been taking them.

“We are creating opportunities but haven’t been converting them – that’s partly inexperience or guys losing focus maybe.

“We’ve spoken a lot about the fact every week we have plenty of opportunities but don’t take. It was unheard of how many chances we had against Argentina and against Australia too.

The Springboks will have the chance to rectify those missed opportunities and show that the All Blacks win was no fluke when they host the Wallabies in Port Elizabeth this weekend.

“We need to be cutthroat with all those opportunities. We know that, we are working on that, trying strategies to convert those chances. ”

“We are not playing bad rugby, we are just not getting over the try line.

In other news: