Wales "just weren't good enough to win", Warren Gatland said after their Rugby World Cup adventure ended in a 23-19 defeat by South Africa in the first quarterfinal at Twickenham.

Wales led 19-18 with five minutes to go, after Gareth Davies had crossed in the first half and Dan Biggar had kicked 14 points, but Gatland's injury-ravaged team came up short after a beautiful offload from the back of the scrum by Duane Vermeulen put scrum-half Fourie du Preez free to scoot into the corner for the match-winning try.

Gatland said: "It's tough, the boys gave it everything and we just weren't good enough to hang on in the last few minutes. I don't want to make any excuses [about Wales' injury list]. At the end of the day South Africa won the game and we weren't good enough to win.

"They did what South Africa do. They hung in there right until the end. They got one chance and they took it and that was the result."

The New Zealander now will turn his attention to the Six Nations campaign and will hope the likes of Rhys Webb, Leigh Halfpenny and Jonathan Davies can come back into the fold after injury.

"There's a number of players that will come back in the next four to six months. We've got the Six Nations to look forward to now and then a tour of New Zealand next year."

Springboks captain Du Preez couldn't contain his delight after going over to put South Africa in front after trailing for the majority of the second half, saying "it was an awesome feeling in a tight game".

"I was just delighted that we could pull it through. It was a tough game and they came on to us all game. We just kept pushing, kept pushing.

"We've still got two more games to go, obviously New Zealand or France. We've learnt from the Japan game and the character from this team and the belief is amazing."