Captain Pieter-Steph du Toit pulled no punches after the Springboks’ 33-16 defeat to the All Blacks, admitting the world champions were their own worst enemy.
New Zealand produced a superb second-half performance to take a 1-0 series lead, while South Africa were left to rue missed opportunities and costly mistakes in a bruising encounter.
The defeat was compounded by late indiscipline, with substitutes Marco van Staden and Cobus Reinach both shown yellow cards as the Boks struggled to contain the All Blacks in the closing stages.
RESULT: Five-try All Blacks punish Boks
Du Toit, however, refused to make excuses.
“All credit to New Zealand, they were just better than us,” the Bok skipper said.
“We made some mistakes and we weren’t able to convert the opportunities we had, so unfortunately we shot ourselves in the foot and in a game like this, it’s those small errors and small opportunities you get that count.”
The back-to-back world champions now head to Cape Town for next Saturday’s second Test, and Du Toit says they have little time to dwell on the setback.
“We’ll definitely have to go back to the drawing board and see what we did well and what we can do better,” he said.
Photo: Floris van Schouwenburg/Gallo Images
The post PSDT: We shot ourselves in the foot appeared first on SA Rugby magazine.
Captain Pieter-Steph du Toit pulled no punches after the Springboks’ 33-16 defeat to the All Blacks, admitting the world champions were their own worst enemy.
The post PSDT: We shot ourselves in the foot appeared first on SA Rugby magazine. Read More
