Cape Town — The Springboks lost more than just their world number one ranking at the weekend, with inside centre Andre Esterhuizen having suffered a broken hand during their historic defeat to Wales in Bloemfontein.
Esterhuizen started in a new-look line-up for the second Test, which the Boks lost 13-12 in Bloemfontein, and has been ruled out with an injury that could see him in a race against time, with the Boks set to host New Zealand in the Rugby Championship at Mbombela Stadium on August 6.
In their 12th attempt in South Africa, the Dragons scored a try through Josh Adams in the 78th minute, before Gareth Anscombe connected an award-worthy conversion to give Wayne Pivac's team a Series-levelling victory in what turned out to be a weekend to forget for the southern hemisphere sides.
Springbok assistant coach Deon Davids went on to explain that while losing is never ideal, they might have gained more from their historic defeat to Wales than they would have from winning.
"It's always awful to lose in the Springbok jersey, that's something that you don't want. The team we selected last week was part of a bigger picture and a plan that we had in mind, and I think that was well-communicated within the squad in terms of what we want to achieve," said Davids.
The Boks made a whopping 14 changes to their starting line-up for the second Test, with Eben Etzebeth the only player remaining from the side that were victorious in Johannesburg the previous week.
Davids added that the decision to go with six uncapped players and make sweeping changes gives them good insight into where the guys are at.
"Whether we won or lost, the situation we found ourselves in gave us more lessons to learn from going forward. Maybe if we won and it was just a rubber-stamp game to win the Series, the players wouldn't have got that opportunity to perform in a situation with a lot of pressure."
The Boks will face Wales in the Series-decider at Cape Town Stadium on Saturday. The match kicks off at 5.05pm.
IOL Sport