Springboks missed their chances – Meyer; Planet Rugby

South Africa had their chances and should have beaten New Zealand according to head coach Heyneke Meyer following their semi-final loss at Twickenham.

The Springboks fell just short, going down 20-18 as the All Blacks overcame a five-point half-time deficit to reach a second successive final.

While South Africa rarely looked like scoring a try, they did miss a couple of late chances to move back in front, losing key lineouts and failing to make the most of one driving maul opportunity.

And having started the tournament with a shock defeat to Japan, Meyer revealed it was frustrating to have come so close to making the final, especially failing to deal with the rain that fell in the second half

"I don't think a lot of people gave us any chance," said Meyer. 

"Only a win is good enough for South Africa and for me as a coach. We gave everything but it wasn't good enough. 

"It will never be good enough to come close and not win. They are a quality side and handled the pressure better than us when they came back.

"We're proud from where we came but we had our chances today and we should have taken them and we should have been in the final. I'm proud of the guys but I'll never be happy with a loss.

"We couldn't build pressure in the second half and couldn't adapt to the conditions."

 Well that's his explanation. We will see what others say & what the stats show. To me it looked like the Boks couldn't generate attack so they spent too long on defence. Critical mistakes meant they lost a close one.

I think the main issue for the Boks in the first half was the territory kicking game. 
Pollard's kicking was terrible. More kicks need to go out, instead of allowing counter attack after counter attack. 

 there was to much kicking we did not respect the ball at all and we paid the price

 Meyer is correct the Springboks missed their chance.

But that did not happen today, it happened 4 years ago when he was appointed as their coach.
Sad but true.

 spot on john