Huw Jones admitted Scotland let a chance to end 14 years without a win against South Africa slip from between their fingers on Sunday.
Scotland weathered the storm of being down a man after Scott Cummings’ early yellow card was upgraded to a 20-minute red and enjoyed a second-half purple patch when the Springboks themselves were down to 14, double try scorer Makazole Mapimpi having been sent to the sin-bin.
But the home side could not take advantage, and South Africa pulled away late on to cement their victory.
Jones said: “What it came down to was probably execution on our part. We had a lot of chances in the second half. A few chances that we should have been better at, skill execution.
“Getting down into their 22, you've got to make those moments count and get points on the board. “They were good, they were physical, they took their chances. Essentially that's what it comes down to in Test match rugby."
Read more:
- Facing Springboks a 'big moment' for Scotland, admits Scott Cummings
- 'The game was there to be won' against South Africa admits Tuipulotu
Scotland had a try chalked off just before half-time with Jones clearly knocking the ball on in the build-up to Ben White’s score. The centre also threw a looping pass over the head of Duhan van der Merwe as Scotland wasted a golden attacking position. On the no-try decision, Jones said: "I've knocked on a couple of phases before in the tackle. That's frustrating. That's just an example of execution and just errors that let us down in the game. It was really frustrating on my part.”
Asked if he thought he’d got away with the knock-on once Finn Russell had converted White’s try, only for TMO Ian Tempest to then step in and referee Christophe Ridley to disallow the try.
"For a moment, once the kick had gone through, I thought, here we go. Then I saw the referee go to the TMO and I thought, this will get called back. I apologised to the boys.”
Scotland are a side that usually have no problem finding the try line, but for the second game in a row against South Africa, they failed to register a five-pointer. Jones believes that is primarily down to the world champions’ outstanding defence.
He said: "Their defence is good. I've always thought their scramble defence is very good. They do give up line breaks, but they work really hard to get back. “We got into the 22, we made a few breaks and we attacked pretty well at times. It's just getting over the line.”
And Jones echoed the view of his midfield partner, captain Sione Tuipulotu, who felt despite defeat there was clear growth in the Scotland performance from the World Cup loss to Rassie Erasmus’ side.
"I'd say there's probably more belief in ourselves,” the Glasgow centre added. “I think we came in probably with a better plan than we had in the World Cup.
"Looking back on that World Cup game, in the game we probably felt under pressure and a bit frantic at times, when we looked back on it, we realised how many opportunities there were and took a lot of confidence from that.
“We were half a yard away from breaking them here.
“We came into this game with that mindset of taking the game to them. There were times we did that early on in the second half and we came away with three points, but it would have been nicer to come away with a try. That's obviously what the game comes down to."
The 30-year-old is confident the performance against the Springboks is evidence Scotland are on an upward trajectory.
"Today, we didn't score the points, but I think when we look back on it, there were a lot of factors in the game that we'll be like ‘yes, that was really good’
“We're gutted with the result, but I think we're moving in the right direction, but it's really tough to let games like this slip away, because you don't get to play them very often. “I don't know when we'll play them next, so it's really frustrating."
Read the rules here