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Matthew Southcombe

Wayne Pivac Q&A: We did a lot of very good things but four yellow cards is tough to take

Wales were just two minutes from securing a first ever win on South African soil, but it wasn't to be.

The Springboks ended the game 32-29 victors after winning it with the last kick of the game, but Wales can be incredibly proud of their performance which almost secured a spot in the history books.

Here's everything Wales head coach Wayne Pivac had to say after the match:

Question: Wayne, can you just sum up the agony of that?

Wayne Pivac: “It was very disappointing for the players and staff alike. We had a pretty good training week, and we did what we wanted to in the first half and put a lot of pressure on the Springboks and they made some early errors. We were able to capitalise and score some points.

“Going in at half-time, the biggest thing for us was to focus on our discipline because we had given away nine penalties in the first half.”

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Q: The four yellow cards were obviously the difference, yes?

WP: “It’s hard playing the world champions in their back-yard 15 on 15, isn’t it? I thought we made a pretty good fist of that. We will have to go away and look at that, as we will always do.

“Four yellow cards is a pretty tough one to take, but that is how it panned out and unfortunately we didn’t quite get across the line.”

Q: The referee is an inexperienced one and that was a lively occasion, do you think it overwhelmed him?

WP: “Look, it was a big game for him, wasn’t it? It was a big game for everybody, for the fans as well. It was just going to be a great atmosphere, and there was a lot of pressure on everyone.

“He will go away, no doubt - the referees do their thing and we will do ours. We will have a look, and we will talk during the week as well, which is part and parcel of what we do so we can get the learnings. We go through that process every week. Nothing will change there. It was a big game, and he will be better for that game, no doubt.”

Q: Would you agree that Tommy Reffell seemed to stand up to the hostile atmosphere quite well on his debut?

WP: “He got a pretty crucial turnover at one stage. He was busy, he was into everything, chasing kicks and making tackles, so he will be pretty pleased, and we are very pleased for him.”

Q: How is Tomas Francis?

WP: “He’s okay in the changing room. He will go through the normal protocols. I would think he will definitely be out of the second Test, and we will have to wait and see whether or not he is available for the third.”

Q: You knew the first 20 minutes was going to be important and you did well there? And secondly, why are you guys staying in Johannesburg this week and not going to Bloemfontein?

WP: We’re just enjoying Johannesburg so much! It’s such a nice place, the people have been fantastic and the hotel is great! We’ll get up there on Thursday.

“The start was important and we talked about that before the game. We have got to look at the positive things we did in this game. We set ourselves up to win the game, so we did a lot of very good things.

“We have got to make sure we have a similar sort of start next week. South Africa will no doubt improve, and hopefully we will improve. It sets itself up for a good second Test. You have got two teams highly-motivated, highly-charged after tonight, no doubt.

“We’ll just look forward to having a couple of days to get ourselves back in shape to do it all over again.”

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