Jacques Nienaber refused to blame his goalkickers after the Springboks missed 11 points in the crucial World Cup pool loss to Ireland on Saturday night.
Ireland slotted two second-half penalties through captain Johnny Sexton and replacement Jack Crowley to claim a 13-8 victory in the brutal Test match in Paris.
The Springboks had more than enough opportunities to seal the win, after taking an 8-7 lead through Cheslin Kolbe’s try, but flyhalf Manie Libbok and scrumhalf Faf de Klerk missed three penalties and a conversion between them.
Despite the issue being raised in the post-match press conference, Bok head coach Nienaber said his kickers were not the problem.
“Hats off to Ireland, they were better than us on the day,”said Nienaber. “We missed a couple of points off the tee. I won’t say that’s the sole reason for not getting across the line.
Pollard the biggest winner as Boks left kicking themselves
“In the first half alone we lost two balls close to the try line and had another two opportunities later on, so that’s four opportunities, plus those points off tee. But I won’t say it is only goal-kicking.”
South Africa’s wayward kicking performance has seen calls for Handre Pollard to be handed the No 10 jersey in the final pool match against Tonga, after he was recalled to the squad as an injury replacement.
Pollard’s kicking was crucial to the Springboks in their 2019 World Cup campaign in Japan, where he finished as the tournament’s top points scorer.
“We’ll have to discuss. Lots of things go in to team selection,” said Nienaber. “We will get the medical status after 24-48 hours and then we will go through our team selection process as normal.”
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In analysing the defeat, Nienaber said that Ireland caused the Boks issues at the breakdown.
“I think that’s one area where Ireland were exceptional tonight. That’s probably one of the biggest reasons why we didn’t get momentum.
“We will just train harder and get better at it. We knew it was coming, it is something they do. We made some plans during the week that we thought would negate their tactics at defensive breakdowns but obviously it didn’t work consistently.
“There are lessons we will take out of this game. We will have to make new plans on how to deal with that better.”
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Photo: Miguel MEDINA / AFP