Springboks captain Andre Esterhuizen attributed the team's defeat to Australia to poor discipline and an inability to capitalize on their own chances after the world champions suffered a tight 42-38 loss in Perth on Sunday.
The Springboks were penalized for a costly first half of the match, during which Australia repeatedly showed defensive weaknesses. Esterhuizen admitted that the Wallabies managed to exploit almost every mistake.
"We always knew it would be a tough battle coming here," Esterhuizen stated. "Australia is always a difficult team to beat, and it was a very good game. I think it was quite a tense match and fast enough for a test match." He continued: "But they took advantage of all our mistakes. I believe discipline let us down, especially in the first half. We conceded too many times, and that hurt us badly."
Coach Rassie Erasmus made 13 changes to the squad that played in the previous test match, but Esterhuizen dismissed the notion that the restructured team was too disjointed. "I don't think it was too disjointed," he said. "I think, as I said, the key factor that let us down was discipline. These guys, all of us, have trained together for the last 18, 19 weeks. We know each other well. We know the plan well. It's just about getting there and executing it."
Despite the loss, Esterhuizen expressed pride in how the Springboks managed to come back into the game and give themselves a chance to win in the final moments. "I am very proud of the fight the guys showed at the end," he noted. "But we definitely need to get better."
The Springboks also received a strong reminder of fan support away from home: a large number of South African fans turned Optus Stadium into a sea of green, almost equal to the number of Wallaby supporters in yellow. Esterhuizen quickly thanked them for their support. "We saw South Africans last week, this week, everywhere," he said. "Support always comes to us. Thank you very much for all the support. Thank you for coming and supporting the guys. It was really nice to play here."