Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber has labelled Saturday’s 30-17 defeat to Australia at the Suncorp Stadium their worst performance since 2018.
With back-to-back Rugby Championship defeats to the Wallabies, unbeaten New Zealand, who klapped Argentina 36-13, will overtake the world champions at the top of the world rankings today.
And a disappointed Nienaber says: “It’s definitely not the worst performance of the year, I think it’s the worst performance since 2018 when we lost [32-12] against Argentina in Mendoza. That’s how poor this performance was.”
He adds: “We sincerely apologise. Everyone, from management, coaching staff – this was a very poor performance.”
His assessment is spot on, as the Springboks went from bad to worse following last week’s 28-26 defeat to the same opponents.
Disjointed in attack and missing an incredible 19 tackles, the Boks were outscored four tries to one.
It wasn’t for a lack of opportunities either, such as the one in the 10th minute when Eben Etzebeth was penalised for crawling with Oz’s tryline within touching distance.
Instead, it was Australia centre Len Ikitau who scored the first two tries of the match – the first after slipping past Handre Pollard and Marvin Orie straight after Faf de Klerk was sent to the sin bin for killing the ball at a ruck in the 13th minute.
Some more poor tackling couple by good interplay by the hosts saw Ikitau score his second in the corner in the 21st minute.
Pollard added three more penalties to his earlier one to keep SA in the game, while Quade Cooper kicked one for Australia to make it 15-12 at the break.
The Boks then had their noses in front straight after the restart when Lukhanyo Am dotted down a grubber kick from De Klerk to make it 17-15.
That turned out to be SA’s last points of the match, as a Marika Koroibete double – the first after a superb move down the short side in the 62nd minute and the second in the left corner five minutes later after a Pete Samu burst in midfield – killed off the Boks.
SA next face the unbeaten All Blacks this weekend.
Australia - Tries: Len Ikitau (2), Marika Koroibete (2); Conversions: Quade Cooper (2); Penalties: Cooper (2).
South Africa - Try: Lukhanyo Am; Penalties: Handre Pollard (4).