Allister Coetzee says he was ‘pleased with a couple of brilliant defensive efforts’ by the Springboks during their record 57-0 loss to the All Blacks.

The Springboks conceded eight tries and missed 23 tackles in Albany on Saturday. Winger Raymond Rhule was the biggest culprit, with nine. Coetzee, though, chose to focus on the rare occasions they did manage to stem the black tide, in his post-match TV interview.

‘I’m pleased with a couple of brilliant defensive efforts and a lot of positives that we can still take out of this game,’ Coetzee said.

The Springboks lineout was poor throughout the match, and while the scrum impressed early on, it struggled in the second half.

‘The set pieces were disappointing,’ said Coetzee. ‘The lineout is one area of the game that you should always get right. If you don’t get it right, then you can’t contest. Unfortunately, we couldn’t create pressure with ball in hand because of our set piece.’

Coetzee also praised the All Blacks for their performance and said three soft tries had forced the Boks to play catch-up.

‘We were just outplayed by a world-class team,’ he said. ‘If you look at the first three tries they scored … a quick tap caught us napping, an intercept followed from there, and then a cross-kick … it’s not like we didn’t have someone there [for the cross-kick], the ball just bounced into their hands. All of a sudden you find yourself 21 points down, which is a tough ask. But all credit to the All Blacks, they were superb tonight.

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The Bok coach said he would take the positives from the game into their next two matches against the Wallabies in Bloemfontein and the All Blacks in Cape Town.

‘We actually did very well tonight in terms of the territorial and possession stakes, it’s just that the pass didn’t go to hand at crucial stages. If we had scored a try or a couple of points in the first half it could have been a different thing, but you know, they were just too good for us.

‘It was a helluva learning curve for us and this young team has learned incredible lessons. We will look at the positives. We have two more Tests back in South Africa and hopefully we will learn from these lessons.’

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Photo: Hannah Peters/Getty Images