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November 30 - It was a particularly glum looking Springbok captain who spoke at a press conference following his team's defeat against Ireland over the weekend.
Saturday's match against the Six Nations champions ended in a 15-10 victory for Ireland and John Smit believes his team's loss was partially due to the fact that the Boks were not clinical enough.
Three missed penalties by Morne Steyn nailed the coffin on the Boks' performance.
"Missing penalties was crucial," said Smit. "Two in the first half near the break and then one afterwards, cost us dearly."
"Those would have the scoreboard ticking and it would have made it difficult for the Irish to come at us as they did eventually," confessed Smit.
Smit congratulated the Irish team and said that they deserved to win.
South Africa, which won the World Championship and Tri Nations has had a tiring year, although Smit would not use fatigue as an excuse for the team's loss against Ireland.
"Each season is the same and the Irish deserved their victory," he said.
The loss against Ireland ends the season on a down note for the Springboks.
"We always knew it would be a tough tour to finish our year with," said coach Peter de Villiers, referring to the four-out-of-five loss against English Premiership teams in the Northern Hemisphere tour.
"Our two wingers for instance have played 500 minutes more rugby this year than they should have done. However, at the end of the day we have no excuses."
Devilliers also said that some of the younger members of the team proved that they were ready to start challenging for places by 'stepping up to the plate' in the match, while others showed that they were not yet ready.
"I guess I could have rested players for the tour but it was vital to not only bring the first team to Europe and also younger players," said the coach. "If I had just brought a second string team then the results would have been far worse."
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