The Springboks closed out the inaugural Rugby's Greatest Rivalry series with a 43-28 victory over New Zealand in Baltimore, winning the series 3-1 in front of a US rugby record crowd of more than 68,000 — the vast majority of them expatriate South Africans.
Six Springbok tries to four settled the contest, though the match remained tight until the final quarter. Erasmus was candid about the closeness of the contest. "I wouldn't say we were the better team today. At 60 minutes the game was still in the balance. We appreciate that we won, but the margin between us and New Zealand is very small."
The result cements South Africa's world No 1 ranking, and both Erasmus and Kolisi were emphatic that the motivation behind the performance runs deeper than the result itself.
"We appreciate the people who were here, but we don't forget the people who were at home — the people on the farm, the boy in the township, the people in the shopping mall. That's what drives us," said Erasmus. "There's only one reason for us as a team and for us as a country: it's for South Africa."
Kolisi echoed that sentiment, noting that a lengthy stoppage due to referee audio problems gave the crowd an unplanned moment that he found striking. "In that moment, you get to appreciate the crowd singing and enjoying the environment, and hopefully we have made it special for them."
The two teams gathered for a joint moment of prayer after the final whistle. "We go hard against each other, but we get along off the field," said Kolisi. "The way the New Zealanders came to our country and embraced it — we came together to thank them for that."