‘Thank goodness that still exists in rugby’ – Portugal coach’s praise for Springboks after ‘incredible experience’

Although his team were on the wrong end of a 64-21 result against the Springboks in Bloemfontein on Saturday, Portugal head coach Simon Mannix sang the praises of his opponents after the game.

In an eventful encounter, the home side played with 14 men for almost the entire match – after centre Andre Esterhuizen was sent off for a dangerous hit on Jose Lima.

They were also reduced to 13 men twice when winger Kurt-Lee Arendse and replacement full-back Quan Horn received yellow cards in the latter stages of the first and second halves respectively.

Despite that, Mannix believed it was a valuable learning experience for his charges and he is keen to take that learnings into future matches with Os Lobos after replacing Patrice Lagisquet as head coach at the start of the year.

‘Going to reflect a lot on the positives’

“I’m just going to reflect a lot on the positives, because this is game number two for me,” he said after the match. “I said to the players, this trip was about discovery, about us learning about each other, seeing what we could do.

“And gee, tonight we’re up against the world champions, and what a privilege to be here.

“So all in all, incredible experience, and I’ve just got to say, hats off to the South African staff and their team for the way that they’ve looked after us post-game.

“That adds to the experience, and thank goodness that still exists in rugby.”

After Esterhuizen‘s dismissal – he initially received a yellow card which was later upgraded to red – Portugal made full use of their numerical advantage and opened the scoring in the 10th minute when Jose Paiva dos Santos crossed for the first of two tries.

Mannix was impressed with the way his troops started the match and for the way they stayed in the fight but admitted that he knew that it was only a matter of time before the Boks took control of proceedings.

“I hope the players will remember that, because this was a historical event for us, and as well for South Africa,” he added.

‘I really felt for the player’ – Portugal coach addresses ‘unfortunate’ Andre Esterhuizen red card

“And as the 15th ranked team in the world, coming to the number one ranked team in the world, for 10 minutes our guys showed we want to play, we’re going to try and get the ball to space, here’s what we can do.

“And we had the try ruled out, and the score would have come back to 22-14, with about 15 minutes to go to half-time.

“And even then, there were never any illusions in the coaching box that we’re going to do something special, but we could have stayed in the game a little bit longer, but physically just so tough, so tough for our men tonight, but they hung in strong.

“But we’re going to get better, and that’s the promise that we have for everybody back in Portugal, that we will get better, and we’ll work harder, and we’ll come back stronger.”

One player who made a big impact for Os Lobos was Paiva dos Santos, who came on as Lima’s replacement, and finished with a match-high 145 metres gained while crossing for two tries.

‘A great kid’

“He looked the part of a Test match player last week as well. Jose’s a great kid. I’m getting to know him,” said Mannix of the 23-year-old.

“He started last week in Namibia. Tonight he was on the bench, came on, took his opportunity. I thought he was going to go in for a hat trick.

“I thought, how many players have scored a hat trick against South Africa in their career? I was so hoping that he would do that, go into the record book somewhere. I thought there are a lot of guys who carried themselves extremely well. It’s easy to point to the backline because there’s a lot of talent in there.

“I thought they were great. I’m just delighted with everybody.”

READ MORE: ‘We won’t win World Cups like that’ – Rassie Erasmus reacts to Andre Esterhuizen’s ‘accident’