Erasmus pulls no punches after Ellis Park collapse: 'We didn't play well'

Rassie Erasmus has refused to dress up the Springboks' 33-16 defeat to the All Blacks at Ellis Park, acknowledging the visitors were the better side across most of the park and that South Africa have plenty to fix ahead of next Saturday's second Test at DHL Stadium in Cape Town.

The Boks led 13-12 at half-time but were outscored five tries to one after the break as New Zealand pulled clear to take a 1-0 lead in the Greatest Rivalry series — and in doing so displaced South Africa at the top of the World Rugby rankings.

"We were thoroughly beaten by a team that is now number one in the world — it'll be nice to go into the next game as the underdogs," Erasmus said, before turning more pointed in his assessment. "I'm not going to butter it up with that cliché and say we're going to learn from this and get better. We didn't need to learn from this; we knew what we had to do on the day — we didn't do it."

Erasmus identified the 58th minute as the critical juncture. With the Boks trailing by only three points at 19-16 and pressuring the All Blacks' scrum, South Africa conceded a penalty on their own feed — surrendering the momentum they needed to get back into the contest. The All Blacks then pulled away decisively.

"There were two or three big moments when we let the game go away from us. Not because we wanted to or because we wanted to make those errors but because New Zealand forced those on to us by being really intense and sharp," he said.

While acknowledging scrum dominance, Erasmus was clear it counted for little in the context of the performance. "It doesn't help you if you're dominant in one or two parts of the game. The All Blacks were more dominant in most parts of the game."

With the series now requiring three consecutive wins to claim, Erasmus drew on past experience to frame the situation. He pointed to the opening Lions Test defeat in 2021 and the 2019 World Cup pool loss to New Zealand — both times the Boks recovered to ultimately prevail. "I wouldn't say it's catastrophic because there is a way out, and that's winning three matches on the trot."

The Boks travel to Cape Town for next Saturday's second Test, with the All Blacks facing the Lions in Johannesburg on Tuesday before making the trip south.