Three days on and the pain of the semi-final defeat by New Zealand is still raw in the Springboks camp. Time has neither healed the wounds nor diminished their sense of regret at a perceived missed opportunity.
As John McFarland, the South Africa defence coach, made clear, the All Blacksare not invincible. The Springboks are one of just three teams to have proved that in the past four years in 2014 alongside England in 2012 and the 2015 Wallabies.
Leading 12-7 at half-time and with the New Zealand flanker Jerome Kaino in the sin-bin, South Africa were well positioned on Saturday but, as McFarland acknowledged, they lost the second-half kicking battle and hence the territory from which to hurt the All Blacks.
"We actually had six set pieces in their half - two scrums and four line-outs," McFarland said. "Four out of our six set pieces they gave us 12 points. So we could not build any pressure and in the grey area around the halfway line, we lost line-out ball. So we never really got into their half at all and when we did, they gave us 12 points. You can only play what they give you."
They also failed to get the rub of the green with a potential knock-on being missed in the build-up to Dan Carter's dropped goal and a contentious call to punish Victor Matfield for a neck roll reversing a penalty. It underlines McFarland's impression that the All Blacks are fallible.
"It's a bit late now for me to say that, but yes they are beatable," he said. "I thought the players did us proud, I really did. They gave everything and worked so hard. The key turning point for me was the dropped goal. That gave them hope. I am not sure off that line-out how the ball came so quickly back into his hands.
"A turning point as well was ¬Victor's neck roll, because that was our penalty. Kick that and it is 21-20. It is small margins. The final will be close. I think the key will be the breakdown and how [Michael] Hooper and [David] Pocock did really well against them in Sydney. They converted pressure into points. New Zealand will score tries. There's no doubt about that. The minimum they will score is two or three a game."
South Africa must now content themselves with the third-fourth play-off against Argentina at the Olympic Stadium. "I am looking forward to Friday night even if it is not the final that we all hoped for," McFarland said.
"We put our hearts and souls into the last six months with the Boks. We have given everything and the players have given everything. We could not have asked for more. So for us third would be acceptable."
