Springbok coach Harry Viljoen said he had no choice but to enforce the kicking game as the wet weather and muddy field forced his troops to change tactics from their running game.

Viljoen said: "The weather played a major role in our game plan. The ball was wet and we couldn't make as many passes as we wanted to. The biggest concern was the weather and we're getting to a stage where we'll have to balance our game more with tactical kicking, which was maybe one of our shortcomings today. I wasn't happy with the tactical kicking, which we'll also work on."

Viljoen said people shouldn't take the game in Buenos Aires against Argentina as an example of what he wants to achieve with his side. "That was just the start of the process, of improving our skills. But we're slowly making progress with our ball-in-hand approach."

The coach was still seething about the fact that the state-of-the-art stadium's roof was not closed. "If you have the opportunity to give people an exhibition of skills, why should you bring in kicking? They forced us to kick more today. It's difficult for me to understand why they didn't close the roof. They played very well and it would have helped them as well if the roof was closed."

The Springboks fought an uphill battle in the scrums. Captain Andre Vos said the need for an early ascendancy probably led to the war of attrition in that aspect of the game. "I'm not to clued-up about the scrums, you'll have to ask the guys in the front row. We knew it was important to get a very good hit in the first few scrums and they were obviously looking to do the same," he said.

"So there was always going to be a bit of disruption and that was what happened in the beginning. There was also a fair bit of pressure coming through and that's why a few of them ended up where the guys popped up on top."

He praised the Welsh for their effort and conceded they were a bit unlucky to lose in the end. "I thought they defended very well. They were strong in the tackle and managed to turn a few balls over. When they did that they were very difficult to defend against. Their handling skills in the conditions were good," the No 8 said.

"They have some really strong runners with the ball. It's hard for them to lose like that in the last minute, because they played so well for 79 minutes."