What was the reasons for the SA loss

 It wasn't the ref fault Mike , thats for sure

 I wouldn't say that SA lost because of Matfield and J. du Plessis. They had an average game but to say that they were the culprits of the loss could be excesive

 I am sure the rest of the bloggers are gathering statistics as we speak to state their various cases

I couldn't pick any weak Bok

 Matfield was remarkably good.I have to say I don't support him but he did well.What is apparent is that there is a power struggle in the Bok team.Matfield got on the wrong side of the ref early on and the ref made an example of him at every chance he got.Jannie was a problem.Not in the scrum,but on defense.He missed an Aaron Smith tackle early on...That I feel set the tone for him.I have to say I would like to see Marcel van der Merwe start with Nyakane to give Beast and Jannie a rest just to see how it go's.I think Warren Whitely did well.He was no push over and he played smartly.Ultimately the loss is not down to just two individuals.Players that played badly for me today were Habana,Lambie,Le Roux and Hougaard.Aimless kicking form Hougaard.That gifts possession away to the opposite team.Habanna is off pace.His age is showing now,sorry but its a fact.Mvovo needs to b drafted in and settled.The Boks lost because of basic errors and not going away with points when they were in the Nzland 22...everytime.A good team,the best teams do that well.

Mike It might seem that way on the radio, when you get a chance watch a recording. Pienaar is kak but Hougaard was super kak. We gave away a lot when Bizzie came on for a rare poor game. Matfield had a a strong game in all areas. Imagine how much we would have to read is he was the lock who tracked to the touch line and was easterly pushed out in the last minute. willie has also had a run of average games with a lot of aimless kicking an some poor passing. was a great game and another sad close loss. Congrats to the Kiwis. 

 Richies try was ultimatley the difference. Boks def was so good, that it was going to take something special, and Nz produced it. Theirs nothing anymore SA could of done, Nz just find a way to win, some basic errors from some Sa players contributed. 

My new 2 week old Samsung Smart 3D TV broke last night!!!!
As a result I missed the match.....   Taking the TV back today, and when I watch I will be looking out for the performance of Matfield. 
I somehow doubt that he was responsible for the loss, reading other posters comments here. I will be looking at his performance, but many are saying he played well.
The only negative performance I have heard is that Hougaard was provide a slow crappy service, but I will watch and see for myself once I get another TV today

 i have egg all over me regarding Matfield, he was in fact better than Eben today. When Strauss was doing the linfe outs, we won all our throws and steal a few from the ABs. No, Bissie is to blame for what w3nt wrong in the 2nd halve.Hougaard was poor. He kicked far too many posession away.Serfontein improves with every match.our loosies are tops with Duane my MOTH for the Boks.

Matfield was not a surprise he us usually rated well by most neutrals ( seem to remember him being penalised twice but one was when he did not roll away & it was almost impossible to do so). 
Pollard was the good news for the Boks IMO + the defence was very good. Boks kept it close & the score was a fair reflection. Keep in  mind Boks were in this game until the last couple of plays & they are on the road.
Rugby is looking health in the SH. Boks v ABs is always a good game.

Let's see.
Matfield made 1 pass and 2 runs.Eben had 3 runs.Both made ZERO meters.
Matfield gave away 2 penatlies and Eben 1.Turnovers, 1 all.So at this point they are even with Matfield giving away 1 more penalty.7 lineouts for Matfield and 2 for Eben. Both missed 2 tackels. Eben made 6 and matfield made 16!!Matfield was 2 tackels short of making 3 TIMES the tackels Eben did.Matfield along with Coetzee made the most tackels in the team. 
Yet according to Mike the problem in the pack is Matfield. mike mike mike...FOCUS!!

Of course Mike will blame Jannie and Victor. As a matter of fact, they were fine for the most part.

As others have mentioned, the introduction of Hougaard and Bismarck was the turning point. Suddenly our lineouts stopped working, while Hougaard took Pollard out of the game by insisting on doing most of everything himself, and making a damn poor job of it with those endless deep kicks upfield that New Zealand ran right back to our 22 time and again.

Pienaar for once had the game of his life, and of course that would be the game in which he gets injured.

No single player is to blame. We played a fine first half. In the second half we simply kicked too much possession away. Again.

 At the risk of being disagreed with...
First and foremost...Pienaar, two horrible mistakes within ten minutes of kick-off. Possibly setting the tone?

Though we played a much more attacking game, we still kicked way to much ball away, and not only when Hougard came on. The AB's territorial advantage throughout the game is clear evidence of this. And further evidence of the Boks failure to adapt on the fly and change tactics when required. The kicking game is ok, as long as players are still given the freedom to decide when to run and when to kick. Also what kind of kicks??? As far as i remember we grubbered once, had the ABs on the back foot with it resulting in a lineout won in a decent position. I will never understand the need to always go for up&unders from just inside our half. It totally relieves all pressure built up and hands hard-won ball straight back...most of the time.
I feel the kicking nonsense was a large contributor to the Bok's demise. And lets not forget that for a change the kicking was not that bad. Just done at poor times with a lack of creativity. Goes to show that a bad idea is a bad idea, no matter how well you execute.
Though we scored our points in the first half, i felt, yes, we played better in the second half, yet were detrimentally hindered by some very poor moments that swung the momentum. Thinking back to the game, i feel the most disadvantageous errors to us where Bizzie's three very poor lineout throws inside the ABs half. Two of those being in great attacking positions. One of them in a very driveable position. Possibly game changing?
Defense, not many clangers. 
Am a fan of Willie the Cat and he prevented a certain try by the ABS, but was not happy with him today. Some poor decisions.
Habana, agree with the above post that he is long in the tooth.
De Villiers, very average and we have better.
Hougard, marginally better than Ruan.
Beast, did well.
Victor, did well when service was good.
Standout performers...Strauss, Duane, Marcel, Pollard. Henricks, well he got a try i guess.
Big congrats to Pollard for showing the world that we have kids who out play Steyn in every facet of the game.
All round a great defensive performance yet hindered by indecision in attack and some aimless kicks.

 BokBF.I agree with you and others 100%. Victor was good today, the 2 penalties against he were legit but non the less harsh. Hoagat's service is S L O W man. I didn't want Pienaar to get injured, but glad he is gone. Jannie is kak, and his brother was shocking as well. These boys need to chill out on the farm for a little while. Willie was kak, I like him but boy he blows hot and cold, he can't string any consistency!Poor Mike will be gutted that the rolling maul actually did get going with Victor, not my hero but had a great game.

Plum, I thought Pienaar had his best game of the season. The Boks lost all shape after Hougaard came on. And those stupid deep kicks he made time after time? No man.

I also thought we had a much better first half than second. We kicked too much in the second half and basically just defended, defended and defended.

Jean didn't have his best game. He missed a number of tackles, but he also disrupted the All Blacks backline many times by shooting up in the line on defense and preventing the ball from going wide, forcing the ABs back into traffic.

I do agree on Pollard, which is why I find it perplexing that the Boks seemed to sideline him in the second half with Hougaard doing most of the tactical decision making. That was a mistake.

Willie had possibly one of his worst Bok games. It was error after error, including an intercept pass that Jane thankfully dropped.

 Wonderful - but I still think Matfild was not up to standard.   he lost steam in the second half and lost two line outs on our throw as well.   
If Matfield was a lock with grunt - we could have scored a try from a rolling maul  towards the end of the game - but he has zero.   In any event he fumbled the ball in the second line out as well  - and the advantage was lost.
As for Jannie - he ;lasts 15 minuts in any game a nd becomes a passenger - that was evident again today.
 

Well yeah Cloudy, with only 13 All Blacks on the park I think we would probably have pulled it off

 boks kicked too much and lacked confidence in their backline. Beast wrongly penalised at scrum in attackeing 22 which dented his confidence. Trust the abs to score the only try when 2 saffa down injured...
 Good game tho enjoyed ref not being the star...

 I fully agree Redsman.How is legally allowed for the attacking team to keep on playing when two players are clearly in need of medical attention.That try would never have been scored if it was a full strength team.Look a how rock solid our defense was while we scored a try purely from a class.It is frustrating for me.Bit anyway the game is over and the results stand.

Great to see Pollard have a good game and the loose forwards were very good. Put a lot of pressure on at the breakdowns and were very physical. Willie was very disappointing for mine. He seemed unable to throw a pass that didn't go forward and was lucky not to get pulled up on a few. Had their chance at the end and needed some cool heads or the thread could have been what was the reason for the SA win.

 wee mcaaaw - yes I nnoticed him when he scored a try with two boks injured at the time. Bwahahahahahaha 
Matfiled tackles - they were extremely embarassing- he went back meters at a time against backline players - allowing the wee bas to get over the advantage line. He is a non entity in the tight exchanges. The wee abs probably edged us in the lineouts. Matfiled got penalised for lying on the ball twice.When will the groupeis throw in the towel one wonders. Wee matfiled for bok captain till 2020.BwahahahahahhaWee matfiled, Beast and Jannie faded in the second half. The lineouts went to pot and so did the set peace until Nyankane and marcell came on - far too late. Louw was off key for some reason as well. In the backline our scrummies stuffed up big time especially Hougaard. Willie did not attack space properly and did not distinguish himself really.
Dispite all this we nearly won against this medicocre ab side! Hansen is a worried man. What would hap pen if Meyer got it right. 

 Lets be honest.
The All Blacks are rated #1 for the simple reason that they always seem to  have the Springboks number.
Some Boks played well but Meyer now has no option but to get rid of the OLD Guard and in with the young guns.
All in all I enjoyed the game as the ref kept his hands out of his pocket and the game was a typical Bok/AB struggle.
Sorry the Boks lost but in the end they did allow me to collect handsomely on my bet.
Thanks guys and Cheers. 

Well there's one very good reason why the Springboks lost today . . . they were playing against a superior team.
Next.

 Beeno needs time to regain his composure "Normal" demeanour first hours after a Bok game.

 I can think of one far far better reson. They abs got exremely lucky and managed to score atry with two Bok players down injured.Now if that is not extreme luck what is. I could aslo throwin a cynical red zone infringment that stoped a likely Bok try and about which there were rumblings in the commentay box.
Beeno sane and sensible as always. rooitiwt a closet ab supporter as always. 

 Too many passengers in the side like Jean, Pienaar, Jannie, Matfield and Louw

Vermeulen was huge, Matfield belied his years and Serfontein had his best game yet in a Bok jumper. ABs had most of the possession but too often ball carrier was isolated and momentum lost with resulting penalty. Boks made huge error in not taking 3 points in 73rd? minute. Would've put huge pressure on ABs had they got back inside ABs 22 in the last few mins. Big mistake for Hansen to replace Thrush with 2 mins to go and defensive scrum on own line. Hardly time for Tuipoluto to get into mindset!Game changing moment was Barrett's tackle on Serfontein who was running onto ball at 100mph!Great effort by Boks but got impression they still don't believe they can beat this ABs side!

The Lions also scored against WP tonight while WP had two players down injured. Sh!t happens.

 I know Cloudy but its a grey area.If it was the opposite way then we would have Nzl'ders maybe asking the same question.It is what it is now.We can not change the results.You guys won and if we are going to win we needs to score tries.If we look for every exscuse in the book we will be here for ever.

There is a tangible home field advantage. In my model , which was basically a big correlation analysis...I figured the benefit at 7 points. That would mean we actually beat the spread in both these games.

Hmmm, but the scoreboard still shows a loss in both those matches, Mozart !! 

I think the game was there for the taking, you were much improved and NZ were not great yet again. But you still need wholesale changes to personnel and tactics, don't you ? It was an improvement in some areas though....and yes, I do think Pollard played a decent game, given his youth, inexperience and the situation he was thrust into. His distribution and vision will make a lot of difference, he tackles and you just need to sort your 9, and midfield out to help him in the backs. I won't mention the forwards, I'll be here all night