Win was a true test of character - Coetzee

Springboks coach Allister Coetzee has lauded his men for showing their true character under pressure against the Wallabies in Pretoria where the hosts secured a much needed 18-10 victory on last weekend's Saturday.

The Boks were desperate for a win after sustaining three defeats in a row against the Pumas (26-24), the Wallabies (23-17) and the All Blacks (41-13).

Coetzee was all praises for his men and claims the win displays the growth for his team.

"I’m a very happy man. You never underestimate any Test win. For a team that was under pressure to get the belief back in the system and the way we want to play, this win showed that we are growing. It is also important to win at home. Loftus was a great venue on Saturday night and the support was outstanding. But the credit must go to the players. You can’t coach character but Saturday night showed that this team has it."

The Boks coach also acknowledged the need for improvements while applauding the defence unit for their outstanding performance against the Wallabies.

"To be honest, there is still a lot of work to be done but there are pleasing aspects of our game that are coming right: our defence was outstanding and our set-piece put them under pressure when it needed to.

"That is what Test rugby is all about; knocking your points over," Coetzee said.

Although the hosts failed to score a single try at the Loftus Versfeld Stadium, it was fly-half Morné Steyn's kicking talent which alone cruised them to a essential win in front of the home fans.

Coetzee claims his side worked hard to earn those penalties by applying pressure on opponents to commit mistakes.

"And it wasn’t as if the referee was kind to us in giving penalties our way but we put pressure in scoring areas and we took the scoring opportunities. Morné did well by getting points on the board and getting two drop goals. The win will get a bit of belief back.

"How Morné played was how you win a Test match." the coach said.

Coetzee said the plan according to which they want to play might not be perfected in 2016 or 2017 but that they wish to continue winning games while they perfected their technique.

"What we want to do and how we want to play is something that might not be there at the end of the season or next year but we are growing into what we would like to do.

"We’ve been good with ball in hand and we’ve scored some good tries in this Rugby Championship but a number of times it didn’t come off because we weren’t good at building continuity and taking chances.

"We always look good with ball in hand and that’s the pleasing thing. We created a couple of chances out wide in the first half, where we got the overlap, and we should have capitalised on them. We want to build and apply pressure. There is no style in Test rugby that says run it at all cost or from anywhere — that’s fairytale stuff. It’s about making the right decision on how to get out of your half effectively, which we didn’t do well at certain stages. We got bogged down."