Boks lost to too many mistakes

The debates are still raging: should referee Angus Gardner have given a penalty to the Springboks yesterday when England flyhalf Owen Farrell made what looked like a “no arms” tackle on replacement Bok centre Andre Esterhuizen? Had the English been penalised, South Africa could well have won the Test at Twickenham in London. So we can understand there might be plenty of local supporters muttering “We wuz robbed!”

Losing by the tight 12-11 margin has to hurt. But, let’s step back and ask the hard question: why did the game end up going to the wire in the first place … especially seeing that, on paper at least, the Boks should have run out winners by 7 to 10 points?

Of course, rugby is played on grass, not on paper, and South Africa, on the day, deserved to lose. There were too many mistakes that should not occur at this level of professional sport. There were too many periods when the team looked rudderless. They made England look a lot better than they deserved.

This Springbok inconsistency – world beaters one week, plodders the next – will have to be sorted out before the World Cup next year. And that is just 10 months away.