Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus confirmed that two injuries picked up in South Africa’s record 43-10 win over New Zealand in Wellington “appear to be serious.”
Lock Lood de Jager and fullback Aphelele Fassi were both forced off during the match, with Erasmus admitting that the extent of the damage will only be known after further medical assessment.
“We do have a couple of injuries, which we do not know the extent of yet, but the two that appear to be serious are Lood (de Jager) and Aphelele (Fassi),” said Erasmus.
Springbok captain Siya Kolisi said the squad’s performance showed the depth and unity within the group.
“The coaches allowed us the freedom to be ourselves on the field,” said Kolisi.
“They’ve been saying all week that we should not worry about making mistakes, we just had to stick to our structures and to believe in ourselves.
“They picked guys who haven’t been playing a lot, and the regular players stuck behind them all the way, and that contributes to us being tight as a team.”
The result was South Africa’s biggest ever win against the All Blacks and returned the Boks to the top of the world rankings while also securing the Freedom Cup for a second straight year.
Erasmus remained measured in his assessment despite the historic margin.
“We’ve been on the other side of such a result when we lost 57-0 against them, and they managed to retain their win record at Eden Park and didn’t throw it in our faces, but we’ll take this win, and we are very happy with the result,” said Erasmus.
“The main thing for us going into this game was to get the belief in the team back again, and we are back at No 1 in the world, but we know we are going to face two tough matches against Argentina, who have really been playing well.
“As a team, we want our people to believe in us because we see and feel what they do for us, and everyone back home trusts us to do our best. For us, it is never about proving people wrong.”