Springbok captain Siya Kolisi says his side were looking at new ways of taking on the Wallabies as the pressure grows on the World Champions ahead of their return match in Sydney on Saturday.
Kolisi said he understood the frustration of the South African public at the team’s inconsistent results this season, but said the team felt the same frustrations as they fell to their second consecutive defeat in the Rugby Championship this season.
“We fully understand the public’s frustrations,” Kolisi said, “We as players accept that and take in everything they have said because when we celebrate, they celebrate with us. We have the same frustrations.
“When we finish a game we sit down and watch it again and we know we should have finished off chances we created there, so we share the same frustration.
“We will do our best this weekend and are grateful they share their thoughts on our performances. Without them, we can’t do what we love and we hope they don’t give up on us.
“We have worked very hard this week and I definitely believe we will take the opportunities that we create. It’s painful to see the blatant opportunities that we left on the field last weekend. We understand that people are frustrated that we leave opportunities on the field but we did fight back at the end.
“We know we need to start with better intent this weekend, and no matter how the win comes we need to chase it. Otherwise, we are out of the Rugby Championships.”
Kolisi said coach Jacques Nienaber and Director of Rugby Rassie Erasmus had been working hard behind the scenes to try and find an answer to South Africa’s poor record down under.
“We all take defeat seriously, and live through adversity and I take a lot on myself. I’m lucky I have coach Jacques and Rassie and (Mzwandile) Stick to talk through. They speak about the serious stuff to us but also want us to enjoy ourselves on the field.
“We know we have to do something different this week, it’s’ been 11 games in a row that we haven’t won here so we need to try something different. We’ve had a proper week of training and are working hard.
“The coaches try and take our minds off the negative stuff but our processes don’t change.”
Kolisi added that the team needed to make a better start. In both the Ellis Park loss to the All Blacks and the loss to the Wallabies in Adelaide last week, the team went behind early and needed to play catch-up rugby, making the task so much more difficult.
“We’ve addressed it again today, we know we need to start better and deliver better intensity at the beginning of the game. That has been a big focal point for us,” Kolisi said.
“When we looked again we saw we didn’t miss a single tackle when they scored the first try last week, it was just that they had more intensity than us.
“We had to look at what we do, when we run on and when we sing the anthem, we need to focus on what we are doing, the ways we are looking at the start of the game and need to think of those actions when you sing the anthem.
“We addressed it really well this week as a team and I am positive tomorrow that it will be resolved. When I see my teammate next to me, I need to see the intention in his heart. That is the most important thing, what is in our hearts.”