Erasmus accepts blame after Springboks squander 25-point lead in Perth thriller

Rassie Erasmus took full responsibility for South Africa’s 42-38 defeat to Australia in Perth, refusing to deflect onto a chaotic evening of technical failures, clock disruptions and a spell in which the Wallabies were reduced to just 11 men.

Despite a remarkable sequence of events that saw referee Andrea Piardi resort to a mobile phone after communications equipment broke down, the Springbok head coach insisted the result was entirely of his team’s making. “We’ve got nobody else to blame but ourselves because of the result,” Erasmus said at his post-match media briefing.

South Africa had clawed back from 25 points down to threaten a stunning comeback, but Erasmus was unsparing in his assessment of how they arrived in that position in the first place. “We played ourselves into that position where we were 25 points behind, so we’ve got nobody else to blame. It’s us.”

The Springbok boss acknowledged that an experimental selection — with several combinations that had not played together for some time — contributed to the defeat, though he was careful not to offer it as an excuse. “We rolled the dice a little bit, and some guys hadn’t played a lot together in a long time. Not as an excuse: we picked the team and we had a game plan, and our game plan and our players and our coaching staff didn’t trump them at the end.”

Erasmus also dismissed suggestions that fatigue from South Africa’s Rugby Championship schedule, including their recent series win over New Zealand, was a mitigating factor. “It has been a long slog, but if we won this game at the end, we would have said, ‘Hey boys, it’s wonderful.’” The implication was clear: the same tired legs would have been celebrated had the result gone the other way.

In a notable show of sportsmanship, Erasmus went out of his way to praise Piardi and his officiating team for navigating the technical breakdown. “I thought the way the referees handled the game without comms was outstanding. I know it looked chaotic, but I thought they got a lot of things right by being on the telephone.”

While Erasmus conceded that lost seconds during reviews may have cost his side a chance at the death — pointing specifically to a cross-kick try that consumed another 30 seconds of clock — he refused to lean on that narrative. “If we didn’t play ourselves into that position, the better team won on the night.”