Outscored three tries to one in their final match of their end-of-year tour to the UK, Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber admits they are not happy with how they defended in the match.
In it until the final minute when England flyhalf kicked a penalty conversion to tick over the scoreboard to 27-26 in favour of the Twickenham hosts, Nienaber adds that the team is hurt after suffering a one-point defeat.
He says of their defence on the day: “We usually only concede an average of try per match so conceding three doesn’t sit well us.
“They played well and made it a proper Test match for their home crowd, but it is very painful to have lost at the death once more.”
Of the result, he adds: “This was a spanner in the engine. It would have been lovely to end the year with a win.
“That’s the third time this year that we have lost the game when we’ve been leading by one or two points at 78 minutes, so it’s very disappointing. It’s something that we’ll have to look at and improve on.
“I told the team in the change room afterwards that they’re better than our winning percentage this season (62 percent), which is skewed by the loss of those close games.”
The top-ranked team in the world played 13 matches of which they won eight.