Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus disappointed with underwhelming performance against Italy in Pretoria

There was no two ways about it, Rassie Erasmus was a disappointed Springbok coach after his team spluttered to a 42-24 defeat of an under-strength Italy team at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday night.

Erasmus, to his credit, did not sugar coat his dissatisfaction with the performance.

“It was a very frustrating game,” he said. “They left some big names at home. They had youngsters who had nothing got 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.”

Erasmus had picked 13 players from the warm-up match against the Barbarians to give the team continuity, but they did not kick on from Cape Town.

“There were few new guys in this side, so there are no excuses,” the coach said. “Yes, I would rather have this poor performance at this stage of the season but it doesn’t make it any more acceptable.

“It makes the selection for next week (for the second Test against Italy in Gqeberha) interesting,” Erasmus warned. “Italy could have come back and won the game. They had two tries disallowed. 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 Springbok lineout approximated a disaster. Italy won five of the Springbok throws.

“The lineouts were not good,” Erasmus agreed. “But it was more a case of individuals making mistakes than a system problem.”

Overall, Erasmus was disenchanted with the performance.

“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.”

Erasmus was unhappy that his team conceded four tries.

“Italy were gutsy. There 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 half time, 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.”