Bok coach Nienaber left to rue missed chances against All Blacks, Wallabies

After falling short of winning the Rugby Championship Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber was left to rue the successive losses to New Zealand at Ellis Park and then Australia in Adelaide, and the missed chances in each.

The Boks produced a hard-fought 38-21 victory over Argentina at a packed Kings Park in Durban in Saturday's final match of the 2022 Rugby Championship but fell short of the 40 points they needed to pip New Zealand to the title.

Against the All Blacks in Johannesburg, the Boks gave away a five-point lead at halftime to lose by 12 points and they simply could not take their early chances against the Wallabies at Adelaide Oval.

“I think probably the two Test matches we lost, the one against New Zealand at Ellis Park and the one where we missed all those opportunities against Australia,” said Nienaber, asked where he thought the Boks lost the championship.

He said SA went into Saturday's match with the sole plan of trying to win the Championship despite the odds stacked against them after New Zealand walloped Australia 40-14 in Auckland in the morning.

“We had a plan, we were on task up to probably minute 35, we conceded a penalty and they got into our half and that wasn’t ideal. They scored before halftime, we gave away a penalty and they got into our half, but we were full-on going for it to try and win the Rugby Championship.”

Though the Boks failed to achieve their mission, Nienaber took the positives from a third successive Test victory in the Championship.

“We can’t fault the effort from the players. It is a bit different because there were so many permutations where we had to try and get a bonus point and then try and cut the 39-point margin.

“We all sat down and bought into it and we gave it as good a shot as we could — unfortunately we came up short. But you must never take a win in the Bok jersey for granted and we won’t because it is special.

“Though we didn’t win the Rugby Championship victory in a Springbok jersey will always stay special. I am just glad we could repay the fans — they are probably the heroes of this Rugby Championship in my opinion.

“We had three sell-out crowds, we lost the one at Ellis Park but I thought the other two we gave it as good a crack as we could.”

Captain Siya Kolisi said SA's season had ups and downs and they will be looking for consistency ahead of the 2023 World Cup in France.

“We had some great and weak moments in the Rugby Championship. We were looking for consistency,” Kolisi said.

“We know we can win against anyone in the world on our day, but today was a big step forward because it was a third win in a row and we want to take that momentum with us into the end-of-year tour.”

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