'Poor discipline cost us' - South Africa head coach Jacques Nienaber

South Africa head coach Jacques Nienaber blamed his side's ill discipline for the defeat to Australia in the third round of the Rugby Championship in Gold Coast on Sunday.

The Boks were outdone by a splendid comeback to national duty after four years from Quade Cooper as the veteran playmaker kicked 23 points including a decisive penalty kick in the closing stage to seal a 28-26 win for the Wallabies.

The World Champions went on to concede 11 penalties in the game that Cooper capitalised on seven successful kicks while they also lost Siya Kolisi and Willie le Roux to yellow cards in the first and second halves respectively.

“Poor discipline cost us – 23 points off the kicking tee (for the Wallabies) summed it up,” he said.

“In the first 20 minutes, I thought we dominated and had control over the game, and we were unable to do this in the last 20 minutes.

“We did well to come back late in the game and then we lost the match because we conceded a penalty. That said, Australia played well and they deserved the win.”

Springboks also had their own trouble in converting their opportunities as they missed four out of the eight shots apart from two try chances went missing.

Nevertheless, Nienaber gave full credit to the Wallabies for their victory and is hoping to address the issues when the two teams meet again in the fourth round at Suncorp Stadium on 18th September.

“Without taking anything away from Australia, I don’t think we were great today,” he added.

“There were opportunities for us to score two more tries and we didn’t finish them. It was not a polished performance. We’ll have a look at the game, and we’ll have to fix those things and improve our discipline.”