Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus walked off the sodden turf at DHL Stadium with the look of a man who had just downed a stiff drink after a week of headaches.
South Africa’s 30-22 win over Australia was far from vintage, but it steadied the wagon after a rare stumble at Ellis Park last week and, more importantly, reminded the world champions how to grind when the champagne rugby goes flat.
But if anyone thought this was a turning tide in the Rugby Championship, Erasmus was quick to swat the idea down.
“We always had to go to New Zealand, and beat them twice, if we want to have any chance. So, nothing’s changed,” he said, blunt as a forward clearing a ruck.
This was a match that hinged less on invention and more on execution. Both sides crossed the whitewash three times, but while the Wallabies kicked away points, Handré Pollard was ruthlessly efficient.
The double World Cup winning flyhalf, who was named Man of the Match, slotted six-from-six off the tee. Each strike struck as cleanly as a golfer off the fairway proved the decisive difference.
That he also slipped past 800 Test points, becoming only the second South African to do so, underlined his role as the Boks’ bedrock.
Erasmus, though, saw more than just numbers.
“After a loss you lose a little bit of belief, even though we had won eight on the trot and nine out of ten.
“The big thing for us was to try and win and not let them get a bonus point.”
The Boks managed both, but only just.
Wallaby flyhalf James O’Connor’s two missed penalties in the closing stages offered South African hearts a reprieve, while the Wallaby back three shredded defenders with alarming ease.
Erasmus admitted their elusiveness was a problem:
“We found them extremely difficult to beat, like the Lions did in those two Test matches.”
Highlights: Relive the action from Cape Town, where the #Springboks beat Australia in a hard-fought Test 🎥#ForeverGreenForeverGold #RSAvAUS
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That backline speed, he suggested, was a warning flare ahead of the New Zealand tour.
“This game gave us a good taste of what we are going to see when we play New Zealand because they have lightning backs as well.”
If last week’s second half was, in Erasmus’ words, “a two or a three out of ten,” then this was a solid step up: “a six or a seven.”
The difference? Control.
The Springboks resisted the urge to trade blows in an end-to-end contest, instead forcing the game into tighter channels.
“We played a more balanced game this week. I don’t think we created 50 percent of what we created last weekend but we ground the game out, when we thought it was going to be a grind,” Erasmus explained.
It’s here that South Africa’s identity still shows: at their best in the trenches, less comfortable when rugby breaks into a track meet.
“We tend to struggle when it’s an open, free-running game. It’s beautiful rugby but you lose on the scoreboard.
“Overall, we’ll learn from this and hopefully the tighter the matches get, we’ll get more comfortable with it as we have been in the past.”
The Boks leave with momentum restored, but Erasmus knows full well this was only a sparring session before the main event.
The real test begins in Auckland on 6 September, at Eden Park, the All Blacks’ fortress and rugby’s Everest.
