How South Africa's Sunday newspapers reacted to the Springboks' 29-15 loss to Ireland in Dublin.
The morning after the night before, and things don't look much better in the cold light of day. Consigned to the back pages, with not a sight of their performance to be seen up front, the Boks were roundly condemned for their showing against the Irish at the Aviva Stadium.
'Boks blown away by Irish,' reads the backpage of the Sunday Times. Craig Ray says the Boks were bossed in every aspect of the game and were given a major wake-up call ahead of next weekend's Test against England.
'The home team were tactically superior, which started with their clever kicking game where Johnny Sexton pulled the strings expertly,' said Ray, who called the performance 'arguably the worst of the Heyneke Meyer era.'
Ashfak Mohamed, writing for the WeekendArgus, was equally critical of the Bok performance. Mohamed questioned captain Jean de Villiers's decision to go for the corner on two occasions from two kickable penalties.
'So while they were gaining physical dominance, perhaps two Handré Pollard three-pointers would've helped the team settle down, and De Villiers will rue those big calls in the aftermath of this shock defeat.'
'Sonde-Bokke [Bok shame]' read the back page of Afrikaans newspaper Rapport, with Stephan Nell saying that the Boks had been taught a rugby lesson.
Nell commended Ireland's tigerish defence, but says 'they were helped by the Springboks' impatience on attack, poor execution and unforced errors.'
