Portugal coach 'felt' for Andre Esterhuizen after 'unfortunate' red card

Os Lobos were soundly beaten 64-21 by the Springboks in Bloemfontein on Saturday in the first-ever meeting between the two nations but Mannix was not disheartened by the final result.

South Africa were reduced to 14 men just two minutes into the match after centre Esterhuizen thundered into a tackle on Jose Lima with the Portuguese midfielder forced off the pitch.

Initially, Esterhuizen was yellow-carded for his tackle but the decision was upgraded to a red upon review by the TMO Bunker while Lima was taken to the hospital.

Commenting on what had occurred in the post-match presser, Mannix described it as an 'unfortunate incident' and sympathised with Esterhuizen.

"South Africa are a really strong team across the board and my thoughts are just with Jose Lima who's still in hospital tonight, these are unfortunate things in rugby," the head coach said.

"It was a head-on-head clash and I really felt for the player who got the red card it was an unfortunate incident for everybody involved.

"But our thoughts are firmly with Jose but fingers crossed that everything's alright and prayers are with him."

Following the send off to Esterhuizen, Portugal raced into the lead with Lima's replacement Jose Paiva do Santos rounding off a stellar long-range try from inside their own 22 after pouncing on a turnover.

The replacement would go on to score a second try later on in the match and when asked if the early red card had a barring on the game, Mannix was not having it.

"As to the impact on the game, there's no point in me diving into ifs and whats there's a lot of stuff that could have happened and didn't happen and whatever else," he said.

"I maintain my position that I am so proud of the team's performance in a pretty hostile environment and they did so well."

He was also full of praise for both the Springboks and his team in what was just his second game in charge of Os Lobos after taking over from Patrice Lagisquet.

"We're not naive, we know that that was a B team that was out there but a B team who played some really good rugby at times and have some great athletes," he said commenting about the Springboks.

"We got beaten up at the breakdown, in quite a few areas of the game actually. Yet, we showed a lot of courage.

"We've got guys who have been playing in the fourth and fifth divisions in France and to see to see them exposed to an incredible crowd and atmosphere, I couldn't be more proud."

He added: This was pretty much a pre-season tour for us, physically we are not in the best shape that we could be to play this game but a lot of lessons, we will learn and we will get better.

"I was just so proud of the way that we tried to play rugby and I thought the first 10 minutes we showed our ability to get the ball to width to move it around and when we do that - you saw Portugal play at the World Cup - was a real pleasure."

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