South Africa lock Victor Matfield this evening told Sports Mole that he has never seen a dressing room as downbeat as the Springboks' one after their shock Rugby World Cup defeat to Japan.
Two-time champions South Africa were stunned at The Amex in Brighton by Karne Hesketh's 85th-minute try which gave the Brave Blossoms a 34-32 win and just their second victory ever at a World Cup.
"I've never seen a dressing room as quiet as that," Matfield, who is South Africa's all-time appearance maker with 124 caps and became the Springboks' oldest-ever World Cup player at the age of 38, told Sports Mole. "We'll have to pick it up, there's only one way to turn it around.
"If you look at the previous two World Cups, two teams that played in the final struggled a little bit in the Pool stages and they went through so there's still a chance. There's only one thing we can focus on and that's next week (vs. Samoa)."
The Blue Bulls lock was quick to praise Japan, whose last and only victory in a World Cup was in their opening match of the 1991 tournament 24 years ago.
"Great performance by them," he said. "They came out, they played well. In the first 10 minutes they had a lot of ball on the ground and they came out with a different game plan than we were expecting. They kicked the ball quite often and defended very well.
"We knew it was going to be a tough game. We spoke all week about their quality players and we know as well that Eddie (Jones) is a very good coach. So we knew it was going to be tough, but we still had our opportunities. There was three or four times in their 22 when we just couldn't hold on to the ball and that's something we need to fix."
Matfield said that South Africa must be more patient when they take on Samoa at Birmingham's Villa Park in a week's time.
"One thing is we need to hold on to the ball," he added. "Whenever we broke the line we didn't have the patience to go for another phase. You won't create the magic immediately when we're in behind them. Unfortunately we didn't do that today."
Today's defeat is the first time that South Africa have lost their opening match of a World Cup and the most points that they have ever given up in a single World Cup match.
Pascal Lemesre
