Jean De Villiers believes South Africa's senior players were to blame for their defeat against Ireland at Aviva Stadium.
Tries by Rhys Ruddock and Tommy Bowe saw Ireland register a shock victory over the world's second-ranked team.
The South Africa captain blamed the Boks error-count and the failure of key individuals in his vastly experienced team to deliver after the loss.
Ireland went in ahead at 6-3 at half-time and De Villiers lamented the Boks inability to turn set-piece dominance into a better position on the scoreboard.
Speaking to RTÉ Sport, he said: "We made a lot of errors. Our first phases were actually very good, I thought we dominated the scrums and the lineouts and unfortunately, you can’t play rugby without the ball. In the first half we hardly saw the ball."
Ireland's attack was effective during the game with smart planning delivering Bowe's try as Conor Murray's clever chip saw Bryan Habana caught out of position.
De Villiers added: "Credit to a good offensive system. Ireland definitely deserved this win tonight. I thought our senior players let us down a little bit, including myself. We need to take a hard look at ourselves come back on Monday and work hard."
De Villiers admitted that an element of complacency may have affected the South African preparations.
He added: “I don’t think there was (complacency) but then again looking at this result and the way we played maybe it did creep in at some stages.”
