Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus admitted his side needed a bit of luck to escape with a 16-all draw against the All Blacks in Wellington on Saturday.
Trailing 16-9 with less than a minute on the clock, replacement halfback Herschel Jantjies scored a try, which Handré Pollard converted to secure the draw.
- South Africa score late to salvage draw against All Blacks
- All Blacks v Springboks 2019 Rugby Championship test player ratings
The Springboks found Cheslin Kolbe on the right who chipped over for Jantjies, who caught the ball to score his third try in just his second test for South Africa.
The past four games between the two nations have been decided by two points or less, and serves as a dress rehearsal ahead of their highly anticipated Rugby World Cup opener on September 21 in Yokohama.
"To play the number one team in the world and be lucky at the end there, it was almost like last year," Erasmus said.
"Right at the end we could have lost it and we managed to draw the game, and Handré could have missed that last kick so we could have lost that game.
"To come away with a draw, I guess we're satisfied with that. The first 35 minutes we played very well while they totally dominated the second half. So fairly lucky, in a big way."
Despite admitting his team were lucky to escape a draw, Erasmus felt his team were unlucky to be trailing 7-6 at the halftime break, considering how dominant they were.
The Boks were leading 6-0 when just before halftime, Beauden Barrett put Jack Goodhue into space to score the opening try of the game.
"I was frustrated in a sense that we dominated a lot of things except lineouts," Erasmus added. "All the other facets we dominated.
"Especially when they were almost under caution from the referee for repeated infringing and we missed the penalty when we could have gone nine points up, then they scored that turnover try and that swung the momentum.
"[We were] lucky to escape, but the first 40 minutes we played really good tactical rugby."
South Africa will spend the next week in Auckland, before flying out to Argentina for their final Rugby Championship game against the Pumas.
Newshub.
