Disappointed Wilco Louw believes Springboks can still win the series

Unlike many of his teammates, tighthead prop Wilco Louw did his job superbly as the Springboks went down 16-33 to the All Blacks at Ellis Park.

The South African scrum was superb for the first 55 minutes of the match, until Gerhard Steenekamp, who had replaced Ox Nche early in the second half, was penalised for an infringement with his team in a dangerous attacking position.

Louw, Malcolm Marx and Nche had bossed the New Zealand scrum, pushing them backwards and winning penalties; they seemed unstoppable.

“Obviously it’s very disappointing, but ja, they used their opportunities really well and luckily we’ve got another chance next week.

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“They played really well and they used their opportunities and they could finish ...

“Next week is another opportunity. We will focus on what we need to focus on and do better. They were more clinical than us.”

Louw dismissed the notion that the Boks liked to slow the game down , but said he didn’t think the pace of the match was overly fast.

“It’s a Test match so there’s not [a lot of] opportunities to waste time and no one wants to waste time. Obviously we want to play an exciting brand of rugby.

“I don’t think there’s any nation in the world that’ll go out and say we want to make it slow. I think it was a well-paced game, I don’t think it was too quick.”

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“There’s still three Tests to go. This was just the first Test. And the belief is there that we can be better, grow and use our opportunities … I just think being clinical and focusing on us and try to use our opportunities better.”

Centre Jesse Kriel used the word clinical several times in his post-match interview — the Boks lacked it and the All Blacks had it in spades — but his analysis of the impact of Kurt-Lee Arendse’s injury early in the match was different to that of coach Rassie Erasmus.

The winger went off after a head injury assessment with Andre Esterhuizen coming on at centre and Kriel moving to wing.