Springbok head coach Rassie Erasmus and captain Eben Etzebeth admitted that the 32-15 scoreline against Scotland “flattered” the Boks a bit.
Although the world champions ran in four unanswered tries, Gregor Townsend’s troops were competitive for long periods and despite the Springboks eventually prevailed with a 17-point winning margin, the match was still in the balance on the hour-mark with the visitors holding a slender 19-15 lead.
It was thanks to two penalties from Handre Pollard and a converted Jasper Wiese try in the final quarter that South Africa managed to shake off their opponents but both Erasmus and Boks skipper Eben Etzebeth felt the scoreboard flattered the visitors.
“The scoreboard doesn’t tell the whole story, but we can be proud of the fact that we didn’t concede a try in the last two matches we played against them,” said Erasmus.
“We had to work hard to beat them, so in general we are not pleased with our performance today.”
Elaborating on his statement, Erasmus said: “I was happy about the effort the team showed and winning by 17 points away from home, but we need to work on trying to sync better on the field and handle things better if in case we get injuries.”
Etzebeth echoed his coach’s sentiments but said he was not surprised by Scotland’s performance on their home turf.
“We said from the outset Scotland are a quality team, and one of the best in the world,” he explained.
“I think (winning by) 17 points flatters us a bit. We knew it would be a grind of a match, and credit to them, they played well today.”
The world champions’ next assignment is against England at Twickenham on Saturday and Erasmus said he will be preparing his charges for a totally different onslaught from Steve Borthwick’s side.
“Next week against England will be a different challenge as we will be facing a desperate team that come off two losses in matches they could have won,” he added.
