Kriel: Boks will find solutions after All Blacks defeat

Springbok centre Jesse Kriel says the team will take their defeat against the All Blacks on the chin and put in the hard yards to ensure they return stronger for next weekend’s second clash.

The Boks went down 33-16 in the opening match of the Castle Double Malt Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry Series at 10bet Ellis Park in Johannesburg on Saturday night.

They will have Sunday off to recover from the physically demanding encounter before returning to the training field on Monday to begin preparations for the second match at the DHL Stadium in Cape Town next Saturday.

Kriel, who earned his 91st Test cap, said the Springboks would review the match and work through the areas that needed improvement.

“We'll obviously watch the game again and work through it,” he said after the match.

“We have another whole week to prepare, and we’ll do what we need to do. We’re a team that finds solutions, and we'll be up for it next week.”

Kriel echoed Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus’ view that the Boks had not been clinical enough when opportunities arose.

He said success at the highest level of international rugby depended on converting chances into points, particularly in matches between leading teams where the margins for error were extremely small.

The All Blacks had been more clinical when their opportunities came, Kriel said, and the Springboks would have to improve in that area ahead of the Cape Town encounter.

The Bok coaches were also forced into several positional changes during the match, with Kriel moving to the wing.

He said the team planned for such eventualities and had adapted reasonably well, but conceded that their overall accuracy had not been where they wanted it to be.

“In big games like this you have to be able to adapt,” he said.

“It doesn't normally happen a lot, but when it does, I think we reacted pretty well. I just don't think we were as accurate as we wanted to be on the night, and New Zealand put us under a lot of pressure.”

The Springboks will remain in Johannesburg until Wednesday before travelling to Cape Town on Thursday.

After next weekend’s clash, the teams will return to Johannesburg for the third match at FNB Stadium near Soweto before travelling to the United States for the closing encounter of the competition in Baltimore.