Jacques Nienaber insists he should give his win bonus to South Africa’s players following Lions win

Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber said he owed his players his win bonus after they dug him out of a hole by winning the second Lions Test and forcing a decider in Cape Town next week.

The Boks smashed the Lions 27-9 to level the series 1-1 with a brutal second-half charge inspired by their beefy pack.

And their head coach Nienaber said: ‘Our leadership group was fantastic. I should give them my win bonus. I felt more of a facilitator than a coach.

‘The supporters were unbelievable. They were at our hotel from 2pm on Saturday, and on the way to the stadium, the roads were full of our supporters. I am so happy we could do it today, it was for them as much as it was for us.’

Nienaber was convinced the referee Ben O’Keeffe made the right call not to send-off Cheslin Kolbe for a dangerous tackle on Conor Murray, the wing just sin-binned instead.

‘It was the right call,’ he added. ‘They followed the process to a T.’

And captain Siya Kolisi was delighted that his Boks delivered under pressure like they did at the World Cup in 2019.

‘It was huge,’ he said.

‘We knew what we didn’t do. It was same pressure we felt at the World Cup, but now it is a bit more because this only happens every 12 years.

‘So, as a person and individual, we had to go back to what works for you. For me, I pray, I read my devotions. That’s how I handle my pressure.

‘As a team, we go back to what we know with the systems, the structures of the team, working on fixes. Every individual looks at what you need to do.

‘That’s what we went to because you can’t control everything, but what we can apply on the field, that’s what we focused on.

‘It’s game on. We are going to go again. Nothing is different. We are just going to try and do what we did today even harder.’