'Really dogs***': Rassie Erasmus' raw reaction to shock Bok loss and the 'saddest thing'

Springboks head coach Rassie Erasmus has taken full responsibility for South Africa’s shock 38-22 defeat to the Wallabies, saying the coaches got it “terribly wrong”.

South Africa looked in cruise control at 22-0 up after the first 20 minutes at Ellis Park, but slowly lost their grip as Australia mounted one of the most improbable comebacks of all time to stun the world’s number one side.

The Wallabies claimed their first win at Ellis Park since 1963 and their first at altitude since 2010, breaking a 14-year losing streak in the Republic.

Rassie Erasmus uses the ‘s’ word

Rassie Erasmus uses the ‘s’ word

Erasmus admitted the press conference afterwards was “embarrassing” as he took accountability for what unfolded in Johannesburg.

“I must be honest. That’s probably one of the most embarrassing press conferences I’ve done in awhile and not because we were awful, but they were really good,” Erasmus told media in the post-match press conference.

“I don’t want to put the old cliche out there, credit to them, they they were good, but we made them better with with our poor performance.

“To be at 22-0 up. We did the same against Italy, you know, 27-3 up, and then we let teams back in. Um you know, we can find excuses there, but at the end of the day, they gutsed it out.

“You know, they had a few injuries when Skelton and Pietsch went off and and you know, we had one or two injuries, but yes, we gave them one or two soft tries with the intercept here and we were almost scoring and then they scored from a pass from Andre.”

“Overall they were just better than us on the day in most departments. We didn’t scrum them. They they beat us in the lineouts. For the first 25 minutes I thought we were really good at the breakdown, but after that when Siya got injured and Marco [van Staden] had to go for HIA, they bullied us at the breakdown. Yeah. So, I can just sit there and say, ‘Listen, they beat us in most departments.'”

The Springboks’ expansive approach backfired with two tries conceded against the run of play, a Joseph Suaalii intercept from Manie Libbok and a Tom Wright counter-attack after a dropped ball by Andre Esterhuizen.

Two tries to captain Harry Wilson, who was later forced off with a possible ACL injury, and another from winger Max Jorgensen propelled the Wallabies to history.

“We as coaches got it terribly wrong and we have to look first at ourselves before we point fingers at the players. We know from now until next Saturday we are going to take a lot of flack,” Erasmus said.

“We take credit when we are doing well, and now we take the flack when we do badly. I’m not saying that with a smile because I’m happy, I’m saying that with a smile because that’s the reality of rugby.”

On the differences between the two sides, Erasmus didn’t believe they were outsmarted tactically, but physically overpowered.

After conceding six tries to three and finishing 16 points behind, the Springboks were left with no competition points from their opening Rugby Championship fixture as they attempt to become the first South African side to defend the title.

“I don’t think they tactically outsmarted us. I think they physically dominated us,” he said.

“The interesting thing is the longer the game went on, they are supposed to struggle at altitude, but it just shows what Joe is building. We were always nervous about that.

“The saddest thing is five points for them, we didn’t even fight back to take the bonus point. So currently we are on zero points.

“I can butter this up to sound cool and respectful, but we were really dogsh** on the day.”