Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus says the defeat to the All Blacks in their first pool match of the World Cup set them up for success.
South Africa lost that encounter 23-13, but then went on to become the first team to lose a pool match and then win the tournament.
Erasmus explains: “The first All Black game was a great test run for us in terms of handling pressure.
“We were terrible in that week in terms of talking about things and getting tense, it was a terrible build-up that told us a lot about how to play the playoffs.
“We were quite honest with one another about that. We started to talk a lot about what is pressure.”
CELEBRATION: Rassie Erasmus, center celebrates the Springboks' victory, which he says is for the nation. Picture: Aaron Favila/AP.
It’s then where the Boks had a mind shift and realised that they can help South Africans coping with real pressure by winning the William Webb Ellis trophy.
Erasmus adds: “In South Africa, pressure is not having a job or if one of your close relatives is murdered. In South Africa there are a lot of problems, which is pressure. We started talking about things like that.
“Rugby shouldn’t be something that creates pressure; it should be something that creates hope. We have a privilege of giving hope - it’s not a burden.
“It’s not talking about hope, and saying you’ve got hope and sending a beautiful Tweet about hope.
“Hope is when you play well on Saturday and people watch the game and have a nice braaivleis and feel good afterwards.
“No matter if you’ve got political differences or religious differences or whatever; for those 80 minutes you agree with a lot of things you might disagree on.
“We just believed that this was not a burden, it’s our privilege and the moment you see it in that way it becomes a helluva privilege to try and fix those things.
“The moment you see it in that way it becomes a helluva privilege. We started working towards that; and that’s how we saw this whole World Cup campaign.”