Cape Town — "We can only look at ourselves."
Those were Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber's words following their shock defeat to the Wallabies.
The Springboks extended their horror run Down Under to lose 25-17.
Get this right — given the South Africans' record in Australia, where they haven't won since 2013 — it wasn't even the result that was shocking, it was their performance.
You'll be hard pressed to recall a worse Bok showing in recent years.
Yes, the ref was far from even meeting a semi-decent level of officiating and Nic White should be shortlisted at the Oscars for his theatrics but, at the end of the day, the Boks had nobody to blame but themselves for that defeat.
Out of all the disappointments in the loss, the Boks were dealt an extra blow when scrumhalf Faf de Klerk was yellow-carded for making contact with his opposition number's face. While that was bad, let's not forget that the Boks failed to capitalise on their yellow-card advantage.
🗣️ "I'll have to have a good look at it."
— SuperSport 🏆 (@SuperSportTV) August 27, 2022
Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber reflects on the Wallabies loss.
Another big moment was when Lukhanyo Am looked set to score before Marika Koroibete speared him (with not even an attempt at wrapping his arms around) and when asked about it, Nienaber said: "I don’t want to comment (on the ref), I am shying away from that, but we can only look at ourselves. We can't control anything other than what we can control.
"I'm going to try stay clear of that. It is what it is. The referee has made a decision and we've got to live by it.
"I thought they capitalised nicely on it, and it's a tough one when you lose a No 9, especially on defence. Defensively, looking back, I think we could have controlled it better.
"If it's a yellow card, it's a yellow card. I thought we could have handled it better."
On the tackle, Nienaber added: "It showed their desperation, not just from him, but there were a couple on their try line. A lot of credit has to go to the Wallabies in terms of how they played."
The Boks next face Australia again at the Allianz Stadium on September 3.
IOL Sport