McKenzie wants better basics
Wallaby coach Ewen McKenzie, who is still searching for his first win after three games, admits that basic errors cost his side dearly on Saturday.
South Africa won their first match in Australia in four years and kept the Wallabies win-less in the Rugby Championship with a record 38-12 victory.
The Springboks won for the first time in nine visits to Brisbane – going back 42 years – with the four tries-to-nil thrashing also their first-ever win at the Suncorp Stadium.
It was the biggest win by the Springboks in Australia and they totted up more points than their last 32-25 win over the Wallabies in Australia in 2009.
"It doesn't matter who you play if you drop the ball in key moments and they counter-attack it's hard work," McKenzie said of his faltering team's poor performance.
"You've got to create opportunities and you've got to grab them. We didn't quite get there. That was the frustrating thing. We got up there in front of the goalposts four times and turned the ball over.
"There are bits of the game that are improving slowly but you are judged on the scoreboard and that's not an acceptable outcome. We made it too easy for them in the second half."
A frustrated McKenzie suggested he will look to "dumb down" the Wallabies' game plan.
McKenzie would not lament the absence of James Horwill, Scott Higginbotham, Tatafu Polota-Nau, Wycliff Palu and David Pocock from his pack of noted enforcers, nor did he offer excuses for the performance of his side.
McKenzie, instead, blamed poor execution in attack and "unacceptable" errors that killed their expansive plans to run the visitors into the ground with an up-tempo game.
"The bottom line is we made too many errors to win," he said.
"In the end we have to say why are we making the errors? Either we're playing a game that is too complicated or the skill level doesn't match it.
"So we'll go back and have a look. We'll dumb it down a bit and make it a bit simpler. That would be disappointing. But we'll look at the whole gamut."
McKenzie also pointedly noted Quade Cooper's "unnecessary" act in giving away the penalty that led to the Springboks prop Coenie Oosthuizen barging over in the sixth minute.
But he suggested the scoreline blew out only because the Wallabies kept chasing the win.
"When we got two scores behind do you shut up shop or do you try to win? We tried to win but all we did was dig a deeper hole."
