The Springboks failed in their quest for a UK tour clean sweep, falling 27-26 at the final hurdle to England at Twickenham on Saturday.
After wins over Wales and Scotland, South African hearts were shattered by a late Marcus Smith penalty after replacement fullback Frans Steyn was penalised at a ruck.
At the time, England had already had a penalty advantage because of an earlier infringement, as the Boks played out the last five minutes of the match minus captain Siya Kolisi who was sin-binned for playing a man in the air.
The Boks ultimately paid for their sins on the park, after clawing their way back into the match following a 17-12 half-time deficit.
In truth, the South Africans started on the back foot even before the first whistle. With no director of rugby, Rassie Erasmus, in their camp, the Boks also had to content with what sounded like an out-of-sync, to put it mildly, rendition of the national anthem.
It was also a stuttering start as soon as referee Andrew Brace blew his whistle.
Failing to match England’s intensity in the first quarter, South Africa conceded a scrum free kick in the third minute. England kicked to touch and after taking the ball to the right of the field finished off the first of their three tries in the left corner via Manu Tuilagi (7-0).
After a Handre Pollard penalty, the Roses pierced the Boks’ defence again - rounding off the move with scrumhalf Ben Youngs popping the ball to fullback Freddie Steward who powered through three Bok defenders in the 17th minute (14-3).
The Boks stayed in the match via the boot of Pollard, who kicked three more penalties as England added one to make it 17-12 at the break.
SA got their noses in front (18-17) with 16 minutes to play with two penalty conversions - one from Pollard, who missed two earlier on in the second half, and another from replacement Elton Jantjies.
But as we’ve become used to recently, the Boks then conceded straight after scoring when Joe Marchant burst through the Bok midfield in the centre of the park to offload to Raffi Quirke for England’s third try (24-18).
The Boks then finally crossed England’s whitewash through none other than Makazole Mapimpi, rounding off a double skip pass by Jantjies and Lukanyo Am (24-23).
The Boks thought they had won it when Steyn kicked a massive penalty conversion eight minutes from time (26-24), but he then went from hero to zero to concede the last-minute penalty, which Smith coolly converted.