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Deans praises resilience

Deans praises resilience

09/04/2010 08:27:21 PM

Australia coach Robbie Deans hailed the resilience of his side after they sealed a dramatic 41-39 victory over South Africa in a see-saw battle in Bloemfontein.

Kurtley Beale was the hero when he landed a late penalty to help break a 47-year drought for the Wallabies at South African altitude.

In a remarkable encounter at Vodacom Park, the world champions looked dead and buried shortly before half-time when they trailed 31-6 but fought back in emphatic fashion.

They looked set to emulate last week's fight-back in Pretoria when they twice overturned a 14-point deficit to win 44-31, before Beale sent over a 55-metre kick from the right shortly before full time.

It sealed a first win on the Highveld for the visitors since 1963 when they won in Johannesburg and Deans said: "Overall, I was very pleased with the resilience shown by this side.

"This was the most experienced Bok side in history up against a young Wallabies side, so to achieve that landmark [a win on the Highveld] is significant.

"It will serve us well going forward."

The Australian boss also hailed the composure shown by Beale, who had earlier made a few blunders that led to points for the world champions.

He continued: "I knew it was always going to be a good prospect with KB.

"It must have been pretty humiliating to take a ball in the head in front of a capacity crowd, but he showed a lot to nail that kick."

Opposite number Peter de Villiers castigated his side for their poor defence, but felt the turning point was an error from referee Alain Rolland in the build-up to a late Drew Mitchell try.

He said: "If we execute our plans perfectly, it will be very difficult to score against us.

"We needed to show more character on defence, like we did in Soweto and last week at Loftus.

"I think the turning point was the line-out where we got penalised.

"The ball did not travel five metres and we were expecting them to be penalised for that, but instead we got penalised and they scored.

"While we can look for answers, the fact is that we can't afford to play catch-up two weeks in a row."

And the under-fire Springbok boss insisted his side were on the right track despite the loss.

He added: "If you look at how we started this one, I think we showed character to come back.

"Our structures are in place and they can take us to World Cup if executed properly."

 
Photograph Copyright : Getty Images

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