Coach Rassie Erasmus said he could forgive Cheslin Kolbe for his blunder that led to a try, while praising Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Morné van den Berg, and others.
A delighted Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus praised individual efforts in his side’s thumping 67-30 win over Argentina in Durban on Saturday, saying they offset silly errors committed in the first half.
One of the worst of these was wing Cheslin Kolbe’s “brain fart”, where he unintentionally performed a goal-line dropout, which Argentina scored a try from while the Springboks were casually walking back to their try line.
Another was hooker Malcolm Marx’s maul side-entry in defence, which gifted Argentina a penalty-try and earned him a yellow card.
Still, the Springboks followed their three first-half tries with six tries in the second half. They dominated set-pieces and open play, putting to bed the numerous offsides, knock-ons, dangerous tackles and other errors committed in the first 40.
‘I think we can forgive him’
“There were a few things we did stupidly, giving them tries. A yellow card, Cheslin’s drop-out from the dead-ball area,” Erasmus said.
“It’s very simple what he did wrong. He didn’t try and kick a short kick-off. He just wanted to kick the ball to the guys kicking off. It’s a legal try, he drop-kicked it… a bit of a brain fart.”
The Springbok coach said Kolbe made up for the mistake in his performance afterwards.
“I think I’ve done stupid things like that when I was playing. All of us have. You have to remember all the brilliant things he also does. I think we can forgive him for those seven points.”
Erasmus said he was delighted with the win because the Springboks sorted out their errors in the second half to beat a very good Argentinian team.
“I thought both teams were up for it and played really well, and some individual brilliance also made a massive difference.”
Sacha simply superb for the Springboks
Flyhalf Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu was the star of the show, creating plays, including Kolbe’s redeeming try from a cross-kick, while scoring three of his own (one chasing his own kick, two sniping through the defence).
He also slotted nine of his 10 kicks at posts to rack up 37 individual points, a Springbok record.
“None of us can disagree that Sacha was man of the match,” the Bok coach added. “He did incredible things on the field.
“But if you think the lead-up to where he was today, there were many mishaps in kicking before this game. I think we must give guys chances to build their reputation, build their skill set at Test match level. He’s definitely doing that.”
Erasmus also lauded scrumhalf Morné van den Berg for speeding up the game when he came on.
The Springboks now lead the Rugby Championship with 15 points, ahead of New Zealand (14), Australia (11) and Argentina (nine) going into the final round next weekend.
The Boks will play Argentina in their final game in London on Saturday.
