Wellington – Jannie du Plessis feels as if he is in a hole “bigger than the one in Kimberley” after the disappointment of a narrow defeat to the All Blacks, but he wants the Springboks to make amends as soon as possible.
The Bok tighthead prop cut a forlorn figure after Saturday’s 14-10 loss to the world champions at Westpac Stadium. Du Plessis knows that the South Africans had the game in their hands, and they just needed to come up with the final play to complete the job.
A series of mauls were somehow repelled by the All Blacks pack, though, leaving Du Plessis distraught. But he wants to pick himself up quickly, with another date with the Kiwis looming on the horizon in Johannesburg next month.
“I would love to play them every week until we win. But unfortunately, that’s not how it is. I think we should use our opportunities better because if you look back at two years ago in Dunedin, we kicked 30percent of our goals and we lost by 10 points. So, we’ve been in the situation and we haven’t converted or taken the next step,” the Sharks stalwart said.
“I think it’s a bit disappointing that we don’t learn from our previous encounters because this was very similar – we had opportunities at the end, which we didn’t use, which is disappointing. Of course I am in a hole bigger than Kimberley’s ‘Gat’ (hole) at the moment.”
The Boks came very close to turning those mauls into tries at the end, but their second line-out throw-in went to Victor Matfield and Kieran Read contested and made it a scrappy ball, and Du Plessis felt that the Boks should’ve used another option.
“The ball at the back was probably on, but with three minutes to go, you tend to rather play the banker ball or the safe ball. Looking back at it, we should’ve thrown the ball to Duane (Vermeulen),” he said.
“But we got the ball in the drive before, and we were on our way to the tryline, and they had to almost tackle our maul because we were going to score a try. So, we take a lot of confidence out of that, that we can score if we execute a set-piece well.”
Du Plessis has hit back from the difficult times he suffered at the hands of Argentina loosehead prop Marcos Ayerza a few weeks ago with improved performances against the Wallabies and at the Westpac Stadium, where he arguably won his battle with Wyatt Crockett.
The Boks had the edge in the scrums overall, but French referee Jerome Garces found a way to penalise Tendai Mtawarira on two occasions when the South Africans looked like they were on top.
“It’s frustrating when you are penalised when you are going forward,” Du Plessis said.
“I mean, the new rules – especially because the hit has been taken away – are supposed to … the dominant scrum is supposed to get the benefit of the doubt. But I can’t criticise the referee. The scrums were a good contest, and I think we didn’t do too badly.”
But after having come so close to toppling the All Blacks, the Boks will feel that they have made some progress in their game, with Du Plessis feeling that it is more a mental hurdle that they need to overcome.
“At the end of the day, Test matches between good teams are won in the head – it’s more a psychological thing. And I really felt that psychologically we were prepared well and really believed that we can beat the All Blacks,” the 31-year-old veteran of 58 Tests said. - The Star