Stand-in Springbok skipper Chilliboy Ralepelle slammed his own players after they had crashed to English champions Leicester Tigers in the tour opener on Friday night.
Ralepelle, who lasted only 20 minutes before a recurring ankle injury forced him off, was bitterly critical of himself and his team as they stumbled to a 22-17 defeat, confessing: "We let ourselves down."
Ralepelle went on: "It was one of our worst performances of the year. Leicester really came at us and they were much better prepared than we were. We knew the Leicester pack would be tough. They pride themselves on their scrum."
Ralepelle, whose tour is in doubt because of his injury, admitted his men had not stood up well.
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| 'It does hurt, nobody likes losing especially in the Springbok jersey.' |
"One of the biggest disappointments for me was that we were all waiting for someone to create some sort of magic. But at this level, you can't wait for that to happen. You have to go out there and do it yourself and if you are not able to do that, then its best you sit at home."
But Ralepelle did offer one crumb of consolation, expressing his pride that at least the South Africans mounted a sustained, furious late rally which could have snatched an unjustified draw or even win. "At the end of the day I guess the guys did show great character and commitment towards the end because they did fight back and we nearly got the win."
Did he feel this defeat would damage the Springbok tour? "It's a steep learning curve for these youngsters," he said. "It can't get worse from here.
"You see these youngsters perform in the Currie Cup and they were unbelievable. But (on Friday night), they were disappointing both to their country and also to themselves.
"But I still believe they can step it up and bounce back. They have the ability to do that."
Springbok coach Peter de Villiers slipped quietly away, leaving his assistant Dick Muir to face the music.
Muir admitted: "It was disappointing, obviously, but you can't play this game without any possession and, unfortunately, we were poor at the breakdown and also at the set pieces, so we couldn't get our game going.
"We came over here with an experiment and maybe it didn't come off as we had planned. But I think now we just have to move on.
"Hats off to the Tigers. They were fierce at the breakdown and they have an incredibly strong scrum. We have to go back to the drawing board and fix that. Our front row will take a look at this and say, 'we need to work really hard to get up to that level'."
Muir refused to say whether Gurthro Steenkamp was injured when he departed early in the second half, or whether it was a tactical substitution. Certainly, Steenkamp had been heavily battered by Leicester's powerful Italian tighthead prop Martin Castrogiovanni as the South African scrum disintegrated.
Muir did not seek to minimise the shock of seeing a Springbok scrum marched backyards, scrum after scrum. "I don't think I have ever seen a South African scrum suffer like that," he said. "Especially from a coaching perspective, we were given a lesson in the scrums."
Had the early loss of Ralepelle contributed to the defeat? "Whenever you lose your captain, you lose your way a little bit."
But Muir refused to accept that the defeat suggests South Africa don't have the quality strength in depth they thought. "No, it doesn't mean that at all. We know there is a lot of depth in South African rugby and we are a proud nation. We don't like losing but sometimes you learn more from a loss than you do from a win.
"It does hurt, nobody likes losing especially in the Springbok jersey. But when you take a squad like this and you have a short turnaround, maybe you are not as well prepared as you would like to be."
But does this setback damage the Boks' prospects for the tour's Test matches, starting against France in Toulouse next Friday night? "I think it will probably cause the guys to be a little bit more determined next Friday," said Muir.
"We have some pride to salvage. When you are top of the pile there are a lot of sides wanting to knock you off. That is the territory we have created for ourselves.
"We have to learn from this and show a greater appreciation for what the English Premiership has to deliver. There were internationals scattered all over that (Leicester) side."
Was there any bright spot for Muir? "I thought the way the guys came back at the end showed real character."
The Boks are set to call up two extra frontrow men as cover: a prop and hooker.
- This article was originally published on page 21 of Sunday Independent on November 08, 2009
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