South Africa coach Rassie Erasmus was not prepared to blame the long distance travelled by his Springboks team for their 22-20 loss to Wales, but rather put it down to a number of errors in defense.
The one-off Test was played in Washington DC on Saturday night, just a week before the home series against England begins in Johannesburg. But Erasmus, who was overseeing his first Test as Bok coach, was not about to blame the long journey a few days prior.
The coach, who watched his side come back from 14-3 down at half time only to lose to a late try, told the media: "We knew there would be risks involved by only coming over later in the week, but we're not making any excuses - the Welsh showed more determination in the end to clinch the game.
"All their tries were scored as a result of kicking - a charged down kick and box kicks we failed to control - and also we committed some defensive errors.
"We had our chances to score, and overall I think it was the pressure, which they were able to put on us at the end, that won it for them."
The Boks saw 13 players make their debuts at the RFK Stadium, and Erasmus took that as the main lesson from the game, although a disappointing one, ahead of the series against England.
He said: "The one positive for me is that there were quite a few new players who got caps today and now know what it's like to play against a quality team like the Welsh, but it's still a Test that we lost, and that hurt.
"It's never nice when you play your first Test and you lose, and we didn't want that result, but we wanted to get all of the uncapped players on the field and start building towards the future.
"However, we still lost and that almost nullified the fact that we capped a lot of new players."
The Springboks were captained by Pieter-Steph du Toit for this match, but will have Siya Kolisi lead the team against England on 9 June. It will be his maiden series as Bok skipper, and he will become the first black player to lead the side.