Boks don’t play blame game

Springboks coach Jacques Nienaber felt the match officials were right to rule out two potential South African tries while captain Siya Kolisi said the world champions were ‘‘our own enemies’’ in their first test defeat to the British and Irish Lions.

The Lions won 22-17 at Cape Town yesterday after a strong second half comeback, but the Boks had two tries ruled out after video replays, guided by South African TMO Marius Jonker.

Nienaber said the Springboks had three opportunities to score in the second spell, but were ‘‘brought back’’ but he conceded the crucial decisions were ‘‘the right call’’.

He refused to be drawn on whether Lions replacement flanker Hamish Watson should have been yellow carded for a tip tackle on Boks fullback Willie le Roux, who had a try ruled out because he was deemed to be marginally offside when Lukhanyo Am kicked ahead.

But Nienaber had no issue with the non-try award when quizzed at the post-match press conference.

‘‘When we saw the try being given, we as coaches felt it’s going to be unbelievably tight. I completely trust and agree with the decision they made. That is their profession, it’s what they’re good at.

‘‘It could have gone both ways but I 100 per cent agree with the TMO call there. They are in a position where they have all the angles.

‘‘Sometimes those inches go for you and sometimes it goes against you.

‘‘It’s just one of those things. We had three opportunities to score in the second half and we got brought back, which was the right calls but that’s how close it is,’’ he added.

‘‘Sometimes those inches go for you and sometimes it goes against you. It’s just one of those things.’’ Jacques Nienaber Springboks coach

‘‘The margins are inches. In one instance, it went for us and in the other two it didn’t go for us.’’

Kolisi also had no beef with the match officials’ decisions, saying: ‘‘Those are things that we can’t control’’.

‘‘All we can focus on is what we can fix as a team, technically and also mindset-wise.

‘‘We’ve got make sure we come back better and stronger this coming week.’’

Back in the Boks’ starting lineup after recovering from Covid-19, Kolisi said the South Africans were ‘‘our own enemies’’.

‘‘We started well in the first half, we controlled the set piece, but the second half simply let us down through [conceding]

penalty after penalty.’’

Kolisi rued the missed opportunities and said the Springboks made ‘‘a couple of tactical mistakes’’ at set pieces in the second spell.

Nienaber felt the Springboks’ had the better kicking game in the first half, ‘‘and we got the rewards’’, but it was a different story in the second half.

‘‘They won that battle and it gave them territory, advantage in broken field play and we had to scramble, and could not cope.’’