Springboks 36 – 27 England

The Boks won the second test 36 – 27 against England and clinched the series. This is what Heyneke Meyer, Jean De Villiers and Francois Hougaard had to say about the game:

Heyneke Meyer

“I was very happy with the first half, we just lost our momentum. In that period we showed glimpses of what we are capable of and where we want to go as a team. That is the type of rugby I am looking for the team to play. Injuries played a part in the second half, but I don’t want to make excuses. We made a few unnecessary mistakes from set phase, but credit to England for the way they played in the second half. Towards the end we had several players off and mostly young guys on the field, so Jean did well to keep the players together and calm.

“We lost our way a bit in the second half because our first-phase play wasn’t good enough and we made mistakes that allowed England back into the game, but we played really great rugby in the first half.

“Injuries are part of rugby so I don’t want to complain about it, but the one England try was scored when Juandre was down, and the other one was the result of an overthrow at a lineout. England worked hard to come back at us but some of the points we gave away were unnecessary.

“Lambie went off injured and it was the second time in the space of a week that we have lost a fullback. Frans Steyn can play fullback but he hasn’t done so for a while and it required a bit of an adjustment. But we will take the win.

“The young players would have learned a lot from being in that tight situation towards the end and they did well to produce that final try that nailed down the win. It will hold us in good stead for the future.

“Some of the guys are tired and I do want to try a few things but at the same time I don’t want to lose continuity. A lot will depend on the injuries and who is available, but The Castle Championship is just around the corner and I want us to go into that tournament with continuity and momentum.

“Test rugby is not Super Rugby. I think we played Super Rugby in the first half, but we were never going to be able to sustain that for 80 minutes. Sometimes you have to go through patches like that, you have to learn to grind it out. What was great to see is that the panic didn’t set in. I felt Jean did very well, it wasn’t easy.

“We want to win every Test and I will never give the jersey away cheaply. However, there were a lot of fatigued players out there, they have played a lot of rugby this year and we have to take that into account. We want to a give a few other guys in the squad a chance. But at the same time, we want to build some continuity. There is a fine line.

“We played some excellent rugby in the first half and we need to build on that, we need some continuity going into the Rugby Championship. So the selection isn’t going to be easy for me.

“England are a side that never say die. I had watched them in the Six Nations. They won in France and I knew they had the ability to win big games away from home. It took a lot of guts to fight back tonight. You can’t coach that. They are a side that is always going to be hard to put away.”

Jean De Villiers

“They never gave up and we did not help the situation by giving them crucial points at crucial times. I have always rated JP, he is a great all-round player. The first thing I did was speak to him afterwards about the jump behind the line. My heart was in my throat when he did that. But he had a fantastic game and his work-rate was unbelievable. He made a couple of line breaks and defensively he was very sound.”

Francois Hougaard

“I struggled a bit during the first game, it was a bit scrappy on my side after we only spent a short time together in camp. This time we started really well and got quick ball.

“I think we are a very dangerous side when we get quick ball so I think the breakdowns were much better. I’m satisfied with the way I played, but there is still a lot of room for improvement.

“The more time we spend together, the running lines and ruck balls we get will improve. We placed emphasis on the breakdowns this week and it showed out there.

“We made a lot of mistakes that we will have to correct this week, although we played well in the first half, we let them back into the game.

“Our focus wasn’t as much on winning the series as it was to play well every time we represent our country. So we will approach the next one as we did the first two.

“It wasn’t a case of us jumping for joy after the final whistle, we are expected to win at home and we need to be more convincing. The fact that the guys didn’t go ballistic afterwards is a sign that we have our feet on the ground and we know there is a lot of hard work ahead of us.”