Bloemfontein: South Africa have been given little chance of exacting revenge on New Zealand in their Rugby Championship finale by Springboks coach Allister Coetzee, who says anyone expecting a rousing home win is “living in a fool’s paradise”.
He did, however, vow that the Springboks would be better prepared for next weekend’s clash against the world champions after their 57-0 drubbing in Auckland last month, despite the disappointment of failing to beat Australia on Saturday.
The two sides drew 27-27 for a second stalemate between them in this year’s southern hemisphere championship to hand New Zealand the title for a fifth time in six years.
South Africa and New Zealand complete their programme at Newlands in Cape Town on Saturday.
“We’ll be playing against a really good All Blacks side, but it’s just been a few months since this team has got together, so to think that we can just go and topple the All Blacks easily would be living in a fool’s paradise,” Coetzee told reporters.
“I think we have to look at the strides we’re taking and build on what we have.
“We are still hurting obviously from the previous result against them, but we will prepare as well as we can and we will be ready for them at Newlands.”
He will be looking for a positive finish after Elton Jantjies missed a last-minute penalty that would have handed the Boks a morale-boosting victory over the Wallabies.
“When you draw at home, it actually feels like a loss, but I’m very proud of this team and the effort. After a tough two weeks, it just shows the character of the side, and that was tested,” he added.
“It’s been an emotional week and we spoke of turning it around. Although the Wallabies got off to a fast start and scored first, we got stuck in.
“We created opportunities and that was the pleasing thing. The fact that we did not convert all of those, was not. This was a fantastic test match, with the physicality right up there and the skill set on display was very good and we were part of that.
“There were foundations laid and lessons learned tonight that will take this team forward. We do create opportunities. Players must never be scared to take chances.”
Australia coach Michael Cheika believes his side did enough to win their drawn encounter with South Africa and are now looking to finish the four-nation tournament with an away win in Argentina.
Cheika said the 27-27 draw at the Free State Stadium was disappointing, with the only positive being that it was an away fixture after the sides had also played out a 23-23 stalemate in Perth last month.
“Obviously, playing away from home feels a little bit better but not a lot. We want to win footy matches, fans are getting up late in Australia to watch us play,” Cheika told reporters.
“I know they would have probably enjoyed the match. I know they would have enjoyed the courage we showed, we kept coming back. But we want to win rugby matches.
“I thought we worked hard enough to get a win but it wasn’t to be. What I was pleased about was the resilience we showed.
“They obviously came with a strategy to run us out of puff on the Highveld but we were able to manage it and it came down to a couple of little bits of pieces,” he added of a contest played at altitude that proved taxing to both teams.
