'No excuses' says de Villiers
Sat, 19 Jul 2008 14:53
No excuses: Springbok coach Peter de Villiers gives his view
Springbok coach Peter de Villiers offered 'no excuses', after his team's 9-16 loss to Australia in Saturday's Tri-Nations clash at the Subiaco Oval in Perth.
The Wallabies, who scored two tries to none, led 5-3 at the break.
"We can look for a lot of excuses if we want to, but the bottom line is they outplayed us today and they were better at the breakdown," said De Villiers afterwards.
"We were a bit off the pace [today]. There wasn't a lot of second phase ball that we could play from. They outplayed us on the ground and they were more clinical.
"We didn't look for chances to play the game and put them under pressure. Then again we had four chances to score tries that we didn't take and, at this level if you don't take your chances you will pay for it."
The Bok coach said the Wallabies had put his team under pressure in the scrums, but vowed that things would be different when the teams meet again in August - in South Africa.
"They were up for it," said De Villiers.
"They could study us and see how we played against New Zealand. Now that we've got some footage of them, I think the next game we will be on the same level."
The Springboks now return home after three tough weekends on the road and will play New Zealand in their next Tri-Nations clash, at Newlands in Cape Town, on August 16.
De Villiers summed up the Bok Tri-Nations tour, saying: "One out of three is not bad [in this competition] but it is not what we wanted."
