Siya Kolisi is on track to return at No.6 for the second Rugby Championship Rivalry Series Test against the All Blacks in Cape Town next Saturday, with Rassie Erasmus confirming the captain's availability after he missed the Ellis Park defeat. Cheslin Kolbe, who limped off in the 62nd minute, is also expected to be available.
Paul de Villiers performed well enough in his first Test against New Zealand — his fourth Springbok appearance — but is likely to make way with Kolisi fit.
Erasmus was direct in his assessment of the performance, describing the result as a wake-up call and offering no mitigation for the manner of the defeat.
"We didn't play well. Against a class team like New Zealand, if you don't convert, they give you a proper hiding."
He identified two or three key moments where the match slipped away, attributing them not to poor decision-making in isolation but to the pressure New Zealand applied: "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."
Erasmus was particularly pointed about the All Blacks' ability to neutralise the Springboks inside the 22, citing ball-stripping, ground contestation and pressure on the halfback as areas the Boks were unprepared for. "It's probably the thing New Zealand are great at. They really know how to stop you when inside their 22 in different ways... and we couldn't handle that."