The Boks suffered a surprising defeat but there have been far worse performances over the years.
Relax, people.
Yes, the Springboks gave up a 22-0 lead inside 20 minutes to lose 38-22, letting in six unanswered tries to go down to the Wallabies, but the performance by the world champions was far from awful, as suggested by coach Rassie Erasmus.
It was also not embarrassing.
The Boks weren’t horrible. Yes, they made a few errors but they weren’t outplayed, as they so often were during the 2016/17 season before Erasmus and Co took charge.
The end result is far more bewildering and quite astonishing, but there have been far worse Bok performances over the years.
The reaction to the defeat has been something to behold. All of a sudden a slew of players are past their sell-by date, this one is the worst who’s worn a Bok jersey, and that one doesn’t belong close to the Bok team.
Really? Come on.
Does one bad period in one match make this Bok squad, who lost only twice last year and have won two World Cups, terrible? No way.
Credit to the winners
Give some credit to the Australians. They were down and out after being 22-0 down and grabbed every chance that came their way to fight their way back into the match. Well done to them.
It’s sport, people. That’s the beauty of it. You never know what is going to happen in a match and on a day.
I can’t help but agree with Erasmus that “tactically we totally overplayed every time we thought something was on”, which is exactly what the Boks did. At 22-0 up, one more try might have broken the Australians’ spirit, so dominant were the Boks in the opening quarter, even up to half-time. Those are the fine margins.
And as Wallabies boss Joe Schmidt makes the point, his side got a “little lucky” and “sometimes there is a lapse in effort and concentration” by one team when they go up so quickly.
It’s been fairly plain-sailing by Erasmus and his Boks over the last few years, and things have gone their way for the most part. But sport is the great leveller and there was going to be a “shock” Bok defeat somewhere.
Now we wait and see what the response will be.
