Gregor Townsend was left “really disappointed” by the World Cup result against the Springboks, which increased the ante for Scotland in Pool B.
Tries from Pieter-Steph du Toit and Kurt-Lee Arendse steered the Springboks to an 18-3 victory to open their World Cup campaign in Marseille.
Scotland trailed by just three points at half-time, as Finn Russell responded to Manie Libbok’s two penalties just before the break. However, South Africa’s defence completely overwhelmed Scotland in the second half.
“We were slow to get going, but we built into the game. There were opportunities, but not many in our attacking game,” head coach Townsend said after the match.
“South Africa took possession and got some points and we never got the accuracy to really trouble them on the scoreboard.
“We only scored three points, that’s unusual for us, credit to South Africa’s defence.”
Townsend also questioned the decision of the television match official not to examine a head-on-head tackle by Bok centre Jesse Kriel on No 8 Jack Dempsey just moments into the first half.
“There are still inconsistencies,” the former Scotland and British and Irish Lions flyhalf said, without wishing to further comment.
“I’m frustrated by that but more frustrated by our own performance.”
MORE: Kolisi hails ‘general’ Libbok
Scotland skipper Jamie Ritchie was under no illusion of what lay ahead for the team.
“All the games are must-win now,” he said, adding that the Ireland clash, at the Stade de France on October 7, “was always going to be a really tough game for us”.
Ritchie added: “I’m really proud of how we fronted up physically… but we didn’t execute under pressure.
“As a group we feel like we’ve got a lot to play for, we have three massive games ahead of us and the pressure is on us to perform.
“It’s a setback in terms of we didn’t get the result, but the good work we’ve done over the last few months hasn’t gone.”
© Agence France-Presse
Photo: NICOLAS TUCAT / AFP