Rassie Erasmus says the defeat to Argentina shouldn’t have come all the way down to Manie Libbok’s last-minute penalty, after the Springboks twice surrendered leads in Santiago del Estero on Saturday. DYLAN JACK experiences.
Libbok missed a penalty from a spread of round 40 metres within the ultimate minute of play because the Springboks suffered a 29-28 defeat to Argentina.
Having raced right into a 17-0 lead within the opening quarter-hour, the world champions conceded 4 tries within the area of 20 minutes to search out themselves trailing on the break.
Whereas penalties from Handre Pollard and Libbok reclaimed a two-point lead, the sport in the end got here all the way down to a battle of the kickers with Tomos Albernoz holding his composure, whereas Libbok shanked his try.
“Not only for us to win the sport, however for him personally, I used to be actually hoping that he kicked that kick,” Erasmus stated. “He has been kicking properly this complete week and kicked so properly within the warm-up. He slotted all the pieces, however that’s strain.
“I don’t assume the sport ought to have come all the way down to the wire, with one man kicking it over. There have been a number of alternatives the place we misplaced the ball in lineouts, gifting away penalties of their 22.
“It was not an incredible show by us. Manie goes to get plenty of flak, everyone knows that. He should discover a strategy to handle that. I’m certain we’ll all get plenty of flak for him lacking that kick. Nevertheless it shouldn’t have been on the final kick for us to win. We should always have accomplished it a lot earlier.”
Erasmus stated he felt the sport shifted in favour of the hosts when Kurt-Lee Arendse was yellow-carded for a excessive deal with, with Los Pumas ruthlessly exploiting the open area out large.
“We did begin properly. I’m all the time nervous once we begin so properly. We are typically a group that counter-attacks from behind. We should always have put them away from that begin,” Erasmus defined.
“Sadly we received the yellow card. Argentina exploited that actually properly. They received exterior our defence very well. They scored two tries whereas Kurt-Lee was off. So I feel that was the momentum shift.
“There aren’t any excuses for the second half. We have been 15 males. It was a carefully battled sport. We by no means noticed ourselves because the favourites, as a result of we left a couple of guys at residence. We wished a couple of guys to expertise enjoying in Argentina, however we desperately wished to win.
“Argentina deserved the win. They performed higher on the day than us. It’s good strain on us once more now. There’s quite a bit that we didn’t obtain at this time.”
Photograph: Rodrigo Valle/Getty Photos
