‘We basically killed our dreams’

Rassie Erasmus says the Springboks may have blown their chances of reaching the inaugural Nations Championship final after losing 21-19 to France in Paris.

The world champions’ hopes of topping the southern hemisphere standings suffered a potentially fatal blow as they slipped to their first defeat of the competition.

While the Boks picked up a losing bonus point, the All Blacks – who have regained the No 1 world ranking – will move ahead of them with victory against Wales in Cardiff on Saturday.

The Boks must now beat Ireland in Dublin next weekend and hope New Zealand lose to England at Twickenham to have a chance of reaching the London final on 29 November.

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Speaking after the defeat at the Stade de France, Erasmus lamented the missed opportunity.

“If we scored one more try, we would have got five points from this game and we would have been in the running,” he said.

“I think we basically killed our dreams for the Nations Championship tonight with this performance and not getting the win and the four tries.”

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Erasmus suggested that France, who also scored three tries, were chasing a bonus point, which explained their decision to kick for the corner rather than take shots at goal in the second half.

“I think maybe they’re also in that mindset of getting four tries and trying to top the northern league, and I think that might have contributed.”

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