South Africa head-coach Rassie Erasmus says his side's 'never say die' spirit was key to their Rugby World Cup success.
The Springboks lifted the Webb Ellis cup for a record-equaling third time after a 32-12 victory over England in today's final in Yokohama.
Makazole Mapimpi and Cheslin Kolbe ran in tries for the new champions with Handre Pollard kicking 22-points.
Former Munster boss Erasmus says it's a special moment:
“For us, we decided long before the Rugby Championship, we wouldn’t call it sacrifice, but we needed to be 20 weeks together to have a chance as we were so far behind the other teams.
“We saw it as a massive honour to try and win it. This is week 19 and week 20 was always the trophy tour in South Africa. We are proud. We know luck was involved and a lot of people said we would not make it but South Africans never give up.
“It was my first World Cup as a coach and the first All Blacks game was a great test ground for us handling pressure. We were terrible that week, we were tense and it was a terrible build up and that taught us how to handle the quarter-final and semi.
“In South Africa, pressure is not having a job, having a close relative who is murdered. Rugby should not create pressure, it should create hope. We have a privilege, not a burden.
“Hope is when you play well and people watch the game and have a nice brai and watch the game and no matter of political or religious difference for those 80 minutes, you agree when you usually disagree. That is our privilege and that was the way we tackled it.”
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