Flanker Paul de Villiers says the Springboks have already set their sights on bouncing back to winning ways in the Nations Championship.
De Villiers earned his fifth Test cap in last Sunday’s 42-38 defeat by the Wallabies in Perth, but believes it inspired the team even more to come back fighting when the competition resumes in November.
While the loss hurt, the 23-year-old reckons the Boks took away valuable lessons from the one-off Test at Optus Stadium.
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“We always learn, and of course we like to learn while winning, but sometimes you learn more by losing,” he said.
“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.”
De Villiers added: “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.
“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.”
Similarly to Bok boss Rassie Erasmus, De Villiers said playing in Australia and getting a feel for the conditions was a good experience as the world champions look forward to next year’s World Cup Down Under.
“It was nice for us to be in Perth and Terrigal,” he added. “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.”
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The Boks will reassemble at the end of October in preparation to face Italy, France and Ireland before the finals weekend of the Nations Championship in London.
Photo: Antony Dickson/Gallo Images
