Springbok winger Bryan Habana believes he let his team-mates down on Saturday as the World Champions lost out to Australia in Perth.
Habana, the current IRB International Player of the Year, told reporters of his frustration at his failure to finish off an impressive backline move with 14 minutes remaining of the 16-9 defeat.
A superb covering tackle from Wallaby replacement Ryan Cross saw Habana narrowly fail to ground the ball close to the left-hand corner flag at a point when South Africa trailed by just seven points.
"At the end of the day, we, the Springbok team, pride ourselves on execution on specific things and I wasn’t able to execute,” said Habana, who left the field with a shoulder injury immediately after the incident.
"For the standards I set myself, I feel I let the team down in that situation and I think I should have maybe finished off better after having played a lot of rugby.
"For the pressure I put on myself to make a difference and make a huge contribution to this team, I let myself personally down and the team down as well.
"You don’t get many opportunities on the international circuit to execute . We had a couple of executions tonight which didn’t go to plan and that probably cost us the game more than what the Wallabies really beat us."
