Hadden points to dodgy Burger roll
Paterson reflects on 'massively physical' encounter with the Boks
Scotland coach Frank Hadden believes a debatable decision by Irish video referee Simon McDowell handed South Africa the impetus to surge to a 36-16 win in the first Test in Durban on Saturday.
The Scots had cancelled out an early Percy Montgomery penalty via the boot of wing Chris Paterson at the ABSA Stadium.
But, with the scoreline balanced at 3-3, referee Donal Courtney requested a television replay after Schalk Burger appeared to be short of the line.
The Irish official referred the incident because he was unsighted, and, despite the fact replays strongly suggested the home player had illegally rolled the ball along the ground en route to the line, McDowell ruled in Burger's favour.
Further tries from Breyton Paulse, Andre Snyman and Percy Montgomery sealed the triumph with the Scots stretched for lengthy periods against the strength of the Springboks.
Montgomery also struck 16 points with his boot, while a Simon Webster touchdown and three Chris Paterson penalties and a conversion offered some consolation for the visitors.
But the Scotland boss questioned the 16th-minute decision, which turned the game in favour of the host nation.
"It looked like a penalty to us instead of a try for them," said Hadden.
"But then you don't know what speed it is being played at, so it was difficult to see how long he took to get the ball to the line.
"He obviously came up short of the line and moved the ball forward on to it.
"He might be allowed a second movement, but it looked like he took a while to get it there.
"Obviously we could have done without that because, afterwards, we were always behind on the scoreboard and struggling."
The result offered a wake-up call to the Scots who travelled to South Africa on the back of a fine Six Nations campaign and a 66-19 win over the Barbarians at Murrayfield last week.
But Scotland winger Paterson admitted the team would need time to regroup for the second Test in Port Elizabeth next week after the exertions in Durban.
"It was massively physical out there," said the Edinburgh Gunners star.
"It was so difficult for us to compete in the first half because we had to defend for virtually all of the 40 minutes.
"We defended pretty well, but they just wore us down with their persistence and sheer power.
"Once we managed to get some possession after the interval we looked a bit sharper.
"But not many people can realise the amount of effort which goes into taking on a team like the Springboks.
"Everyone was lying flat out on the dressing room floor and we need to somehow regroup to try to get a better result next week."
