What a dramatic Test match. You had to feel in the end for the Springboks for the way they fought back so passionately and bravely and then surrendered it at the death to a long range penalty.

But while there is reason for the Boks to feel heartbroken, this is also time for introspection, and for goodness sake, it is also time for the denial to stop. Five defeats in six starts in the Tri-Nations season is unacceptable for a nation that so comprehensively dominated the Super 14, particularly when two of those losses came on the Highveld.

That the Boks came so close after their horrendous start on Saturday had as much to do with the Wallaby self-destruct mechanism - that

Had Kurtley Beale not struck that long range penalty on the hooter to break a 47-year hoodoo at altitude, we would this morning have been looking at the Jaque Fourie try on the stroke of half-time as the turning point of the match.

Just a minute earlier the Wallabies were pressing on the Bok line for the try that would have given them a 38-6 lead.

They had a kickable penalty but chose not to kick at posts, and instead it ended up with the Boks getting a relieving penalty.

It was from that resultant play that Victor Matfield put in a little chip kick that saw him gather and send Fourie in.

The converted try meant the Boks went to the break 18 points behind instead of 25. It was still a long, long way back, but scores on the point of half-time are often massive psychological shifts either way.

While the Boks trudged off with a modicum of belief, something that had been entirely absent for most of an opening 40 minutes in which they were as comprehensively outplayed as they have been for many a year, the Wallabies must have suddenly been filled with doubt.

They started the second half as if they had lost all their confidence from earlier, and with the Boks impressive in the third quarter with the way they retained possession and got the crowd in behind them with periods of prolonged pressure, the Wallabies looked as if they had spotted a ghost.

It was almost like a reversal of some of the famous ODI cricket matches between these countries of a decade ago.

You know the ones, those where the Proteas would play themselves into winning positions against a team they so rarely beat, and then spit the dummy and choke.

As the Boks clawed their way back into it on the scoreboard, and the crowd, so quiet in the first half when their heroes were being outplayed, began to buzz, so the Wallabies started to make elementary errors, many of them unforced.

But at some stage the Wallaby team, even this inexperienced one denuded by injury of so many experienced first choice campaigners, had to start showing bottle - and they chose the most bizarre moment to do it.

With the Boks ahead by five and the Wallabies down to 14 men with less than 10 minutes to go, they fashioned a try that was made to look so easy.

That was the problem - you always had the impression, such was the abysmal Bok defence of the first half, that all the Wallabies needed to do was get their hands on the ball and regain some of their composure and they would be a threat again.

Even with just 14 men! Sorry, that is a sad indictment of the disorganisation of this Bok team.

And that is something that the South African rugby administrators, who are now having the stomach for making big decisions questioned by so many, have to think about as they look to the future.

In weighing up the current coaching team's potential to lead the Boks to World Cup glory, they need to recognise that the slide from grace did not just start in the Tri-Nations. Yesterday's was the seventh Bok defeat in the last 13 starts since the end of the 2009 Tri-Nations, and three of the six wins in that period have come against Italy.

Saturday's game was not played in Brisbane, it was played in Bloemfontein.

And while coach Peter De Villiers is sure to make the excuse that this match was another of those that his side could have won with a bit of luck, it is probably closer to the truth that his team came damn close to losing all six this year.

The Wallabies were just a dropped pass away from winning at Loftus last week too.