Rassie Erasmus has praised the match officials for their handling of a chaotic Rugby Championship clash despite a series of technology failures during South Africa's dramatic defeat by Australia.
The Springboks suffered a 42-38 loss to the Wallabies in Perth after falling 25 points behind before mounting a remarkable late fightback.
The match was repeatedly disrupted by reviews and communication problems, while Australia were reduced to 11 players at one stage after referee Andrea Piardi issued a series of cards.
Technology failures on the night
There was also a remarkable technology failure which saw clocks continuing to run during stoppages, while the officials were forced to use mobile phones to communicate after their usual systems broke down.
But Erasmus refused to blame the unusual circumstances for South Africa's defeat, insisting his side had only themselves to blame.
"I know the technology failed a bit and there were lots of clocks that kept on running sometimes and didn't stop, but that didn't have an influence on how we played," Erasmus said.
"We controlled how we played, and we didn't play well enough today to beat Australia."
Praise for the officials
Erasmus did, however, make a point of praising Piardi and his fellow officials for their handling of the extraordinary circumstances.
"Just in the referees' change room, I think the way the referees handled the game without comms was outstanding," he said.
"I know it looked chaotic, but I thought they got a lot of things right by being on the telephone."
The South Africa head coach acknowledged the difficulty created by the repeated reviews and stoppages, but again insisted his team had put themselves in that position.
"It's tough when there's reviews and the clock keeps going, and then you lose 20 seconds, and there's another review and you lose another five seconds," he said.
"But we played ourselves into that position where we were 25 points behind, so we've got nobody else to blame. It's us."
Selection gamble and late comeback
South Africa had made a number of changes to their team after their recent victory over New Zealand, with Erasmus admitting they had taken a gamble with their selection.
"We rolled the dice a little bit, and some guys hadn't played a lot together in a long time," he said.
"Not as an excuse: we picked the team and we had a game plan, and our game plan and our players and our coaching staff didn't trump them at the end."
The Springboks came agonisingly close to completing the comeback, with Erasmus believing they could have snatched victory had they had more time late in the contest.
"I thought we had a chance at the end there," he said.
"I thought maybe the cross-kick where he scored, if we didn't lose another 30 seconds there, obviously we could have."
"But if we didn't play ourselves into that position, the better team won on the night."
Fatigue dismissed as a factor
Erasmus also rejected the suggestion that fatigue was responsible for the defeat following a gruelling run of international fixtures.
The Springboks had just come through their Rugby's Greatest Rivalry Series against New Zealand before facing Australia.
"Look, it has been a long slog, but if we won this game at the end, we would have said, 'Hey boys, it's wonderful. We're together, we enjoy it, we're a tight team.'"
"And because we lost, we're not not a tight team. We enjoy each other's company and, to be honest with you, it's shit to lose games. We don't enjoy it."
"We know our South Africans, where they are now, and we know how they feel now, and we don't want to give them that feeling."
"So no, it's not because we've been too long together. It's because we didn't play well."
