Manie’s miss one of several Bok shortcomings, argues Rassie

Springbok head coach Rassie Erasmus pointed to collective shortcomings and not a missed penalty attempt by Manie Libbok as root cause for his team's 29-28 defeat to Argentina in Santiago del Estero on Saturday.

The defeat means the Rugby Championship will be up for grabs when the teams meet in Mbombela next Saturday, with Los Pumas requiring a bonus point win while denying South Africa one to snatch the title for the first time.

In a match in which fortunes fluctuated wildly, the result came down to a 79th minute penalty attempt that Libbok dragged to the left.

Springbok supporters observed similar failure off the kicking tee from Libbok in the Rugby World Cup defeat in the pool stages against Ireland last year. This, however, was the first time he missed a kick on which the result of the Test hinged at the death.

“I was hoping for him personally that he would kick it over,” said Erasmus, who added Libbok had kicked well the entire week in practice.

“But it's pressure. I don't think the game should have gone down to the wire, leaving it to one man left to kick it over. He'll get a lot of flak, we know that. He'll have to find a way to manage that. And I'm sure we'll all get a lot of flak.”

Despite clear dominance at scrum time the Springbok were off the pace in several areas and they lacked the game management and composure to see out a tight match in the absence of half a dozen or so senior players who were rested for the occasion.

The Springboks' line-out continues to operate without authority and the absentees due to injury cannot return soon enough. Eben Etzebeth, though, stepped off the bench to make some crucial interventions in his record-equalling 127th appearance for the Boks.

The Boks failed to assert themselves in the contest for sustained periods and despite running into a 17-0 lead after 12 minutes they were caught short on defence, especially after Kurt-Lee Arendse was yellow-carded. It proved a real momentum shift in the game.

Erasmus admitted Argentina then caught them short in the outside channels. Moreover, the game loosened up and the Boks were unable to rein the free running hosts in.

“We got that yellow card and they exploited that really well. No excuses in the second half when we had 15 men. It was a close. We didn't see ourselves as favourites because we did leave a couple of guys at home. We desperately wanted to win. Argentina deserve compliments. Even if Manie kicked that one over Argentina on the day played better than us,” said Erasmus.

That said, the absence of some key members of the team resulted in a leadership vacuum at a time the Springboks could ill afford it. Argentina bent the arc of the match in their favour and the tourists at times resembled passers-by.

“There were enough older guys to shift the momentum,” Erasmus countered.

He admitted leaving half a dozen or so regulars out of the touring squad held potential peril.

“The guys who were rested will definitely come into the mix. We knew we were taking a bit of a gamble leaving seven guys at home. The loss is not nice and we feel sad about that.

“I don't want so say 'lessons learnt' because that is an old cliché, but for some of the younger guys to experience this stadium, the Argentinian support and the way Argentina loosens up the game maybe in future when they are here they will know how it feels. Now they will know when we say it is brutal coming here.”

The attention now shifts to the lowveld where both teams will head directly on the same flight from Santiago del Estero in northwest Argentina. That will save travel time, but the Boks still have to reset quickly.

“We'll have to get over it,” advised Erasmus. “It hurts a lot. We have to point fingers at ourselves, players and coaches, management. Next week we have a chance to redeem and try to finish it.

“It was not a great display by us. There is nice pressure now.”