First things first, I thought the shoulder charge from England flyhalf Owen Farrell on Springbok midfielder Andre Esterhuizen was a penalty.
And had Aussie referee Angus Gardner given that kick to the Springboks after the final whistle had gone, I have no doubt that replacement flyhalf Elton Jantjies would have converted and that South Africa would have beaten England at Twickenham.
That result would have been catastrophic for SA, though.
Instead of pointing out the obvious mistakes in the Bok arsenal, we would have praised them for the way they ground out a result against a “powerhouse” in world rugby in their own backyard.
We would have said the “Boks are back”, they have real fighting spirit, etc.
That would have been far from the truth. The Boks were poor and they didn’t deserve to win. England wasn’t much better and that is reflected in the 12-11 scoreline.
TOO SLOW: Ivan van Zyl is poor understudy to Faf. Photo: FACUNDO ARRIZABALAGA/EPA
Now I have suggested in past columns that Bok coach Rassie Erasmus call up young fringe players for this end-of-year tour. It fell on deaf ears.
Instead, he opted to show his World Cup hand, and despite the absence of some key players - Faf de Klerk, Franco Mostert and Willie le Roux, Erasmus named something that resembled the strongest version of his squad.
I must admit that when I first saw the team sheet on Thursday, I was excited.
Up front, it looked like we had a pack of forwards that would annihilate a depleted English team.
The loose trio of Warren Whiteley, Duane Vermeulen and captain Siya Kolisi especially, excited me.
AVERAGE: Duane Vermeulen made little impact. Photo: CHRIS RICCO/BACKPAGEPIX
If the Boks were going to execute their game plan properly, I could see these guys smashing England big time.
For that to happen, though, they had to do well at the setpiece.
And that brings me to the real reason we lost - poor line-out throwing by Malcolm Marx.
I’ve been saying for a number of months already that Marx is a good rugby player.
A good hooker? I don’t know.
He has a habit of missing his jumpers whenever the Springboks are on the attack and the line-out caller demands a long ball.
Marx’s line-out-throwing cost the Boks this past weekend and it will cost them again.
They need a hooker who can secure that set piece if they want to dominate world rugby with this sort of game plan.
As for Marx, I believe he can still add some quality to the team as an openside flanker.
The Boks don’t have a real fetcher in their team and given these responsibilities, without the pressures of line-out-throwing, I believe Marx will excel. He is a good fetcher and a decent ball-carrier.
A move from hooker to openside flanker worked a number of years ago in Cape Town when No.2 Deon Fourie moved to No.6.
The highly-anticipated loose-forward show of Whiteley, Vermeulen and Kolisi didn’t add much to the game. In fact, it bombed.
And it won’t hurt Erasmus to play around with the idea of moving Marx to the side of the scrum.
That brings us to Marx’s replacement in the front row.
Lineout-throwing has been a problem for deputy Bongi Mbonambi as well.
Towards the end of the Stormers’ Super Rugby campaign this year, Mbonambi’s throw-ins improved and I believe that’s because of an extended run in the No.2 jersey.
PROBLEM HOOKER: Bok FILMED: Livingstone High pupils. Photo: CHRIS RICCO/BACKPAGEPIX
Afford him the same courtesy at international level.
Then there’s scrumhalf.
Ivan van Zyl was trusted with the No.9 jersey against England this past weekend and proved that he has nothing on South Africa’s number-one choice, Faf de Klerk.
Van Zyl was slow and although his kicking game wasn’t that poor, it’s simply not in the same class as England’s Ben Youngs and his replacement Danny Care.
Embrose Papier again sat on the bench for far too long and should have been given more game time.
Anyway, the Springboks made way too many handling errors and errors, in general, to feel that they should have won the match.
And this should be the real concern for Erasmus.
He opted to tour with experienced players and left out the likes of the Sharks’ Du Preez brothers - Dan and Jean-Luc as well as hooker Akker van der Merwe.
He decided not to reward Currie Cup form by ignoring SP Marais and Dillyn Leyds, to name a few.
If he had gone for these options and the Boks have lost by one point, he could have been forgiven.
But what we saw on Saturday was the Bok plan if De Klerk, Mostert and Le Roux aren’t there.
And it didn’t look pretty. Problem is; you can’t even pin this one on inexperience that was supposed to be Eddie Jones’ excuse.