Paul de Villiers: Springboks will come back stronger after Australia defeat

While the defeat against the Wallabies was a bitter pill to swallow, according to De Villiers, the loose-forward said the Boks had taken valuable lessons from the 42-38 loss in Perth last Sunday.

The Boks will reassemble at the end of October to begin their preparations for the next leg of the Nations Championship, where they will line up against, Italy, France, and Ireland before the Finals Weekend in London.

"We always learn, and of course we like to learn while winning, but sometimes you learn more by losing," said De Villiers. "We're not done. There are still a couple of games coming up in November, and for the Nations Championship we're going to go all in and make sure we do everything we can to win that trophy.

"We're committed to that. We're never happy losing in a Springbok jersey. I thought they put us in scenarios where we conceded a lot of penalties, especially in the first half, and we got into a situation where we had to chase the game.

"That said, we're obviously proud of the fight in the last couple of minutes. We really worked together to try to win the match.

"Don't get me wrong, they were good on the day. But if you look at some of the stages we got to, we made a lot of errors, and that kind of shows perhaps why we lost the game."

Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus made 13 changes to his starting lineup for the clash against the Wallabies after their 3-1 series victory in the gruelling Greatest Rivalry against New Zealand.

Erasmus is still looking to build sufficient depth and experience in his squad with an eye on the Rugby World Cup next year in Australia.

Similarly to Erasmus and the rest of his teammates, De Villiers said the experience of playing in Australia and getting a taste of the conditions and the environment was a good experience for the team as they look forward to next year's global showpiece.

"It was nice for us to be in Perth and Terrigal," the flanker added. "A couple of us were in Australia for the first time. We are coming back next year, so it was a valuable outing.

"Getting to experience the place, the people, the stadium, and playing here was extremely valuable going into the World Cup next year."

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