Nienaber pins blame for loss on Boks ‘falling asleep’ at vital moment

The Springboks “fell asleep” at a crucial moment that cost them an end-to end-try and put momentum into the hands of the All Blacks.

That was the assessment of Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber, who said the quick tap by Will Jordan, which started Rieko Ioane’s downfield run that led to David Havili’s try, turned the game in the All Blacks’ favour after the Boks had fought back from 15-0 down.

“We were caught asleep with the quick tap and that was the difference,” Nienaber said. “We fought back to get back into the game and the kick wasn’t accurate enough, and then we weren’t switched on enough when they took the quick tap.

“That was the difference.”

Nienaber said the team did not control the game as well as they should have in the first half, making it difficult to play catch-up.

“I thought we didn’t control the game in the first half.

“We were definitely not as accurate as in Mbombela, and when they kept offloading and got their high-risk game going, we didn’t contain that well,” Nienaber said.

“We did well to come back from 15-0 down and I thought we got back in the game, and got scoreboard control back, but we lost the game in the back end.”

Confronted on whether it was the right decision to start Joseph Dweba ahead of last week’s Man of the Match, Malcolm Marx, Nienaber said it was.

Missed opportunity

“It was a rugby decision, and there is a reason for that, but it is privileged within the team. The players know what it is,” Nienaber said.

Nienaber did admit it was a missed opportunity not to beat the All Blacks back to back.

“You don’t get in that position a lot, where you can beat them back to back, and we are disappointed that we didn’t achieve our goal,” Nienaber said.

“In terms of the Rugby Championship we still have four games left and we have two games behind us and we will have to regroup and refocus on Australia.

“I was sitting in the coaches’ box and thought sometimes these games happen.

“We were over the line three times today [on Saturday] and we got zero points. We created opportunities and sometimes it goes for you.”

Captain Siya Kolisi said he is disappointed with the loss.

“It doesn’t feel good at all. It never feels good to lose,” Kolisi said. “We said all week they need one moment to get themselves in the game and in the first half there were a couple of moments they got.

“They really controlled the game well. We couldn’t impose our kicking game and while we fought back in the second half as a team, we looked to the bench to bring a lot of energy and make a huge difference.

“We would have loved to gain momentum and win, but we can’t keep our heads down for too long.

“We have four more games to go and we missed an opportunity.

“Well done to New Zealand. They controlled the game well and we fell asleep on one tap. It was one moment that made the difference.”

The Boks will regroup later this week after assessing their injuries and fly to Australia on Thursday, where they will face the Wallabies in consecutive Tests.

SuperSport.com