The Springboks are nursing bruised egos and selection headaches ahead of Saturday's clash against a pugnacious Italian outfit in Gqeberha, coach Rassie Erasmus said.
After his team ran out 42-24 winners at Loftus Versveld, a concerned Erasmus said he had tough decisions to make before a rematch with the Azzurri at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium (kickoff 5.10pm).
At one stage it looked as though the Boks were heading for a walkover win over the tourists when they stormed into a commanding 28-3 halftime lead in Tshwane.
The courageous Italians, however, refused to bend the knee and came out fighting in the second half with a strong display that left the Boks frustrated.
“It was a very frustrating game,” Erasmus said.
“We have to pick nine guys to go with the others for the Gqeberha game and we have to decide whether they start or come off the bench.
“Damian De Allende has a bit of a hamstring issue but luckily we don’t have any injuries, just a few bruised egos.
“Italy is a team that is fit and passionate, and we have to make sure that the team that we put out next week is not just a team that can go 50 or 60 minutes, it must be a team that can go 80 minutes.
“They left some big names at home and they had youngsters who had nothing to lose, and they imposed themselves on us.
“They manned up in the scrums, the mauling, defence and attack. It was a proper Test match and we were exposed in several areas.
“There were a few new guys in this side, so there are no excuses.”
Erasmus said the Boks were fortunate that a below-par display had come early in their campaign and the Boks would work hard to fix their mistakes.
“I would rather have this poor performance at this stage of the season but it doesn’t make it any more acceptable,” he said.
“This makes the selection for the Gqeberha Test interesting.
“Italy could have come back and won the game. They had two tries disallowed and they played very well.
“We tried to impose our way of playing on them and they did not allow it. That is a big concern.
“The line-outs were not good but it was more a case of individuals making mistakes than a system problem.
“I did not pick up in the week that this is how we would perform. Maybe that is a sign that you must never think you are well set.
“We as coaches must accept the blame. We thought we had had a great week of preparation, but obviously that was not the case.
“Italy were gutsy. Their halfbacks were brave on defence.
“We scored six tries against their rush defence, and that is to be expected because we train against the rush defence every day. But to concede four tries is not good.
“By halftime, they had made 120 tackles, and you would think they are about to give in, but instead they turned up the heat on us.
“The fact that we did not respond is the concern.”
Italian coach Gonzalo Quesada praised his team for the courage they showed against the World Champions.
“We have 17 players not here so it was very important for us to be brave and fully commit to a big game in defence,” he said.
“Our really excellent 'jackals' had to recover balls and stop their attacks, and we also had to stop their carries from hurting as much as they can.
“I am so proud because the Springboks came hard at us and we showed a lot of effort and commitment. I am proud for a huge amount of reasons.
“Maybe we did not believe enough in ourselves in the first half and did not try the things we prepared. So the players were made aware at halftime that they could do much better.
“The way our leaders handled the second half was really critical and our 'grenade squad' did really well when it came off the bench.
“I am very happy that we did not concede a try from the mauls because that is one of the Springboks' strengths.”
Scorers:
SA 42: Tries: Jesse Kriel, Morne van den Berg (2), Kurt-Lee Arendse, Vincent Koch, Marco van Staden. Conversions: Handrè Pollard (6).
Italy 24: Tries: Manuel Zuliani, Pablo Dimcheff, Niccolo Cannone. Conversions: Giacomo Da Re (3) Penalties: Giacomo Da Re (1).
The Herald
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