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Cape Town - Legendary Springbok centre Danie Gerber says the players are to blame for last Saturday’s fiasco against Ireland at Newlands.
Ireland stunned the Boks 26-20 in Allister Coetzee’s first Test as new national coach.
It was Ireland's first ever win over South Africa on these shores and what made the feat even more remarkable was that they did so my playing the majority of the match with 14 men after CJ Stander was red carded in the 22nd minute.
But Gerber, 58, feels the blame cannot be laid at the door of the coach.
He instead criticised the players for making a mammoth 22 handling errors in the game.
Ireland only knocked on six times.
“They are professional players and should play like professionals. The coach can’t go on to the field and catch the ball for you,” Gerber told Netwerk24.
“You can coach a team as well as you want, but the players should also play their part. South African players’ lack of skills has been a problem for a long time and it was very clear to see at Newlands.”
This is not the first time Gerber has expressed his concern about the skills of South African players.
Sport24 reported last year about Gerber saying how hard it was to watch South African teams participate in Super Rugby.
“Our rugby is messed up by an obsession to mostly attack with the forwards. It’s really not very attractive to watch," Gerber said in April 2015.
Gerber played 24 Tests for the Springboks between 1980 and 1992, scoring 19 tries.
He was inducted into World Rugby’s Hall of Fame last year.
