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Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber lamented his team’s hesitant start in the Castle Lager Rugby Championship Test that paved the way for a 35-20 loss in Auckland.
“The start wasn’t ideal for us,” he said in a post-match statement on Saturday.
Nienaber said poor discipline saw the Springboks struggle to get into the game, with a lot of mistakes being compounded by several missed tackles.
“We can’t start like that with penalties and errors, probably some of them unforced and some from the pressure exerted on us, and if you’re going to play catch-up it’s going to be tough to get a foothold,” he said.
“Having said that, I’m proud of the way we came back; we scored 17 points in the second half but unfortunately the damage was done in the first half.”
Nienaber said that the two opening matches of the Castle Lager Rugby Championship had served a purpose although they had not gone entirely to plan.
“The majority of the guys have had an opportunity to play,” he said.
“Our plan was to win the Rugby Championship and to assess the players and we’ve got some good answers from these two games. We’ve got one more game in the Championship and then three warm-up games to complete that process,” the Coach said.
