South Africa captain John Smit believes his side did not get the reward they deserved for a strong scuimmaging display in Saturday's thrilling 34-31 victory over Wales at the Millennium Stadium.
The Springboks fought back from 16-3 down at the end of the first quarter with a clinical display to maintain their record of having only lost one Test against Wales in 104 years.
And while Smit was delighted to see his weakened side, who were without the likes of wing Bryan Habana, lock Bakkies Botha, number eight Pierre Spies and fly-half Morne Steyn, claim victory he also felt the Springboks had been unfortunate not to be able to exert more pressure through their set-piece.
Aside from a handful of free-kicks given away for early engagements, South Africa were the dominant unit at scrum time.
That strength was exacerbated when Wales switched Paul James to the tight-head side of their front row late in the game.
Indeed, it is a mystery how referee Alan Lewis failed to penalise the Ospreys man for dropping to his knee on three consecutive occasions when the hosts had a series of scrums on the Springboks' line in the build-up to wing Tom Prydie's try.
Hooker Smit said: ‘I think for maybe a year or so the dominant scrum has not been getting rewarded.
'You see things like a scrum only collapsing on a certain team's ball, or in certain positions on the field.
‘These are trends that are picked up on by players and by the people that watch the game.
‘It's very frustrating and we expected more reward from the tight five we picked. We didn't help ourselves by jumping in at the first two or three scrums. We only have ourselves to blame for that.’
Smit had played a part in helping Wales establish their handy first-quarter lead when he found himself receiving the ball in the fly-half position and, after appearing to initially shape to kick, floated out a missed pass that James Hook gratefully latched onto for the game's first try.
‘My instinct is always to kick,’ Smit said.
‘On Monday we have a replay of the game and I just thought, "I can't kick again" as I do have a high percentage of kicks for a guy in my position. So I should have held on to it and scored it myself really.
‘I turned around and I knew I couldn't really gather the guys under the sticks and tell them that we needed to tighten up, so I asked Victor (second-row Matfield) to speak to the guys.
‘It was a schoolboy error and hopefully it won't happen again.’
For Wales, this result was a heavy blow to take before they depart for a daunting two-Test trip to New Zealand, but head coach Warren Gatland insists his side are ‘excited’ about facing the All Blacks in Dunedin and Hamilton later this month.
‘We are looking forward to New Zealand,’ he said. ‘We keep saying that we want to learn from playing the best teams and we are knocking on the door and it is going to crack for us soon.
‘I think we have got to be hard on ourselves and the players need to be critical of some of the errors they have made.
‘I think we have still got to be excited about going down there and playing two tough Test matches.
‘These sides (New Zealand and South Africa), they bring a lot of physicality and we matched them today.
‘I thought our ball carriers did well. Guys like Bradley Davies, Sam Warburton, Jonathan Thomas and Matthew Rees, they were excellent at times.
‘The breakdown was a concern, there were too many turnovers so that is something we will need to work on.’
