Rassie Erasmus: 'Believe me, it hurts to lose in this way'

Springboks head coach Rassie Erasmus was quick to shoulder the blame for his side’s 21-19 loss to France in Paris on Friday night, saying it is entirely up to the coaching staff to find solutions to the problems that have presented themselves.

South Africa fought back from a 14-point halftime deficit in the Test, first with a converted try for Cobus Reinach in the 50th minute, before crucially failing to convert Malcolm Marx’s 71st-minute try from a powerful rolling maul.

The reigning world champions still had the opportunity to have the last laugh in Paris, but Louis Bielle-Biarrey capped a superstar performance by sprinting out of the defensive line to land a decisive tackle on Jesse Kriel, from which the ball went loose, and Antoine Dupont won the race to the scraps.

Following the result, Erasmus conceded his side, which committed 16 turnovers and tackled at 77 per cent, did not perform to the standard required by the occasion.

“We didn’t play well, and I’m not going to make excuses,” the coach 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.”

Erasmus labelled the Test “a real battle”, saying the intensity reached “extreme” levels between the two global heavyweights. The Springboks are the team that has so often come out on top in the biggest and tightest games in recent times, and Erasmus was frank about how much the Paris loss stings.

“The French won it on the gong. And, believe me, it hurts to lose in this way,” he said.

There will be plenty of positives for Erasmus and his coaching staff to assess, too, with the Springboks owning better attack and set-piece stats across the board. Converting that success into points, however, was the missing ingredient the group must now find.

“I mean, the one try France scored was a ball bouncing off a player’s head. I actually felt we defended really well,” the coach reflected.

“France kept the ball in hand, and [Antoine] Dupont, alongside [Maxime] Lucu and basically their whole team was good tonight. I really thought we tackled with guts and we kept them out. The disallowed try of Kurt-Lee [Arendse] before halftime would’ve been game on.

“With everything that went wrong, we sort of played ourselves into that hole. It wasn’t that France forced us into playing the way we did. It was almost like we were a bit tentative tonight, and when something like that happens, it normally comes down to the coaching staff.

“I don’t think the players went out there and tackled their hearts out, being physical and when the opportunity comes decided to be a bit hesitant. That is something I have to figure out and work through all night as to why that happened.

“If you look at the week, we only had two training sessions and a six-day turnaround, and it was the same for France; they even played later last Saturday, so they even had a shorter turnaround.

“I don’t think we have anyone to blame but ourselves.”