Springboks rookie makes bold prediction on response after ‘valuable outing’ against Wallabies
Springboks flanker Paul de Villiers in action against the Wallabies and head coach Rassie Erasmus (inset).
Paul de Villiers believes South Africa’s defeat to Australia would be used as inspiration to come back fighting when their Nations Championship campaign resumes in November.
After clinching a 3-1 triumph over the All Blacks in Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series, Springboks boss Rassie Erasmus made 13 changes to his starting line-up for their one-off Test against the Wallabies.
Those alterations were made to build depth and experience in Erasmus‘ squad ahead of the 2027 Rugby World Cup in Australia. However, things did not go according to plan and South Africa eventually suffered a shock 42-38 defeat at the Optus Stadium in Perth.
Valuable lessons taken from Wallabies defeat
While that result was a bitter pill to swallow, De Villiers revealed that the Boks had taken valuable lessons from the match.
“We always learn, and of course we like to learn while winning, but sometimes you learn more by losing,” said the 23-year-old who won his fifth Test cap against the Wallabies.
“We’re not done. There are still a couple of games coming up in November, and for the Nations Championship we’re going to go all in and make sure we do everything we can to win that trophy. We’re committed to that.”
Reflecting on the world champions’ loss against the Wallabies, De Villiers said: “We’re never happy losing in a Springbok jersey. I thought they put us in scenarios where we conceded a lot of penalties, especially in the first half, and we got into a situation where we had to chase the game.
“That said, we’re obviously proud of the fight in the last couple of minutes. We really worked together to try to win the match.
‘We made a lot of errors’
“Don’t get me wrong, they were good on the day. But if you look at some of the stages we got to, we made a lot of errors, and that kind of shows perhaps why we lost the game.”
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Similarly to Erasmus and the rest of his team-mates, De Villiers believes playing in Australia and getting a taste of the conditions and the environment was a good experience for the team ahead of next year’s World Cup.
“It was nice for us to be in Perth and Terrigal,” said the hard-working flanker.
“A couple of us were in Australia for the first time. We are coming back next year, so it was a valuable outing.
“Getting to experience the place, the people, the stadium, and playing here was extremely valuable going into the World Cup next year.”
The Boks will reassemble at the end of October to begin their preparations for the next leg of the Nations Championship, where they will take on Italy, France, and Ireland ahead of the Finals Weekend in London.
READ MORE: Nick Mallett: Two areas where the Springboks were ‘poor’ which Rassie Erasmus can normally bank on
