The All Blacks outscored the Springboks five tries to one for a statement 33-16 victory in the first of the four matches in what is being marketed as ‘Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry’.
“We have to find a way to get back, we got a good hiding from a good New Zealand side,” Erasmus told the post-match news conference at Ellis Park.
“We’ll lay low and not read the papers and work very hard. We have no excuses because we could have won the game.
“We must keep our mouth closed,” added Erasmus, often the source of controversy with his maverick approach to the game and contentious outbursts.
However, he refused to accept that the unexpected defeat was a catastrophic setback as New Zealand make a first full scale tour of South Africa in 30 years.
“We've been in many catastrophic situations before. We lost the first test against British and Irish Lions,” he said of the 2021 series where they come back and grabbed a narrow 2-1 win.
“We lost the opening game of the (2019) World Cup to New Zealand, everybody says that was catastrophic.” South Africa recovered from that setback to win the tournament in Japan.
“So we've been in a lot of catastrophic situations in our lives. Obviously, we're now in a position that if we want to win a series, we have to win three games on the trot.
“Without a doubt, it puts them (New Zealand) in a very good position, which they thoroughly deserve.
“And now we have to go to Cape Town and try and win there, then it's all level. But we still have to win three matches in a row. So I wouldn't say catastrophic, because we there is a way out and that's winning three matches on the trot.”
Erasmus avoided excuses but admitted his side had several chances where they might have made more considered choices.
“When you look in hindsight, there's a lot of opportunities that we didn't convert, but I think there's two or three big moments where we just let the game get away from us, not because we wanted to, but because New Zealand forced those errors onto us by being really, really intense and sharp,” he added.
The All Blacks are embarking upon their first full tour of South Africa since 1996! Marketed as the 'Greatest Rivalry' series, the winner will come out not only with the bragging rights but World Rugby's number one ranking. Keep up to date throughout August and September with news, previews and more.
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