Springboks head coach Jacques Nienaber rued his side’s missed chances in their narrow 19-16 loss against Ireland in Dublin.
The Test was tightly contested throughout, with the scores level at the break at 6-6 before the hosts turned on the attack in the second half.
In turn, the Springboks worked hard to respond and managed two tries through Franco Mostert and Kurt-Lee Arendse, but it was not to be, as points had been missed off the kicking tee.
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Not clinical enough
Nienaber underlined the challenge of facing Ireland at a packed Aviva Stadium and was frustrated that his side failed to capitalise on their chances, setting the hosts apart on the night.
“One obviously wants to win every game you play, but the reality is that we played against Ireland away in front of a capacity crowd at the Aviva Stadium, and we lost by three points,” said Nienaber.
“We had opportunities that we didn’t capitalise on, but we’ll take the learnings from this match and fix that which we have to next week.
“The difference tonight was that Ireland used all the chances they created, and we didn’t. There were some good things and other areas that were not so good, and we’ll work on that as we prepare for the Test against France.”
A better goal-kicking performance may have won the game for the Springboks, but the head coach refused to lay blame on his players.
“We’re working on it. We and the players measure their goalkicking, so they know at what percentage they’re kicking at during the week,” he said.
“It’s tough, in some instances a miss is actually a kick that hits the posts. It is what it is. None of the goalkickers go out there to miss a goal.
“Johnny (Sexton) didn’t try to miss his first conversion, for example, but the key is he nailed the big ones and we didn’t. I’ll never blame a player for that. They must just keep working on it, which they are.”
Ireland prepared well
Captain Siya Kolisi credited Ireland’s planning in their performance whilst also giving his approval for the Springboks’ defensive effort.
“Ireland were well prepared and they made plans with our momentum. They are a dangerous team, and they took their opportunities, while we didn’t,” Kolisi said.
“They came hard at us in the collisions, and unfortunately, we were unable to get our maul going. That said, I thought our defence was good and we stuck to our guns in that department.”
The Springboks’ challenging Autumn Nations Series continues next week with a tricky Test against France in Paris, who come off a thrilling 30-29 win over the Wallabies on Saturday.