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Springboks coach Rassie Erasmus lamented the costly mistakes in their Rugby Championship defeat to New Zealand at Eden Park on Saturday morning.
South Africa went down 24-17 in a tense affair that saw the All Blacks move top of the standings, with a bonus-point victory to take them to 10 points from three matches.
With the hosts having taken an early 14-0 lead, Erasmus acknowledged the world champions were not at their best and can only blame themselves for the result.
"Oh, I think 14 points – two easy tries, Malcom [Marx] missing a tackle and he played so well all over, and I think Willie [Le Roux] will accept and all of us can accept that was a weird thing that he tried to with that tackle," said Erasmus.
"I'm not sure what he tried to do, and the guy just got up and scored the try, so when you're 14 points down and it starts raining, and you're chasing the game a little bit – you're chasing your own tail. But we put ourselves in those positions."
Down 14-3 at the break, the Boks made early changes that saw Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and Cobus Reinach introduced for Willie Le Roux and Grant Williams respectively.
Erasmus felt that brought a different spark to the tie, although it was too little too late.
"But then I thought the guys that we brought on brought energy, they brought some fight, and I think it was maybe the right thing to have a 5-3 split because the three backline players that came on really had a good impact," he added.
"I thought Cobus settled down the breakdown; I thought Sacha really was electric when he had the ball in hand, and I thought Ethan [Hooker] was really good in the air for us.
"So, ja, there were many things we got wrong, but mostly just giving them 14 points and then think you're still going to win... We almost pulled a draw out at the end, but [it wasn't to be].
"I think it's now 10 points for New Zealand, nine for Australia, us and Argentina on five [each], so there's still a lot to play for next week."
