This was always going to be a ferociously tough game.

South Africa do what it says on the Springbok tin - they play hard, direct rugby and they keep coming straight at you. But it's easier to cope with their strategies if you can get hold of the ball yourself now and then. Scotland's greatest failing, especially in the first half, was that they could not do that.

I'm not quite sure what was going wrong in the Scotland lineout, but it was a costly area in the early stages of the game. I think they turned the ball over five time at their first six lineouts and with figures like that it was inevitable that they would take some damage on the scoreboard. But they compounded their problems by failing to look after what little ball they did get. Worse still, they were turning possession over through unforced errors.

The set-piece is your bread-and-butter at any level of the game, let alone this level. I actually through the scrum was pretty solid, but the lineout was terrible. Perhaps the timing of the lift and the jump was off, but Ross Ford is a confidence player and when things start going badly for him they often just get worse.

The lineout is such a technical area these days that accuracy is essential. We didn't have that and there was almost a sense of panic about the place as things went wrong. Because of that, we had no platform whatsoever, and you just cannot play rugby without that.

There were simply too many silly mistakes in other areas. We turned ball over too easily and just didn't make South Africa work. You don't mind losing to a side that has grafted hard for its points, but South Africa got theirs too softly.

We were struggling for firepower in the backline without Tim Visser and Stuart Hogg. We also missed Matt Scott badly, that unique combination of creativity and physical presence he adds to the midfield. Duncan Taylor is a big, powerful guy, but he didn't have a particularly good gam and turned the ball over too cheaply a couple of times.

I thought John Barcay played pretty well in very difficut circumstances. He was taking a fierce physical pounding in those breakdowns, where Scotland just could not get the quick ball they needed to put the Springboks under pressure. The South Africans kept their defensive shape when Scotland had the ball and flew off the line at an amazing speed. They were smashing Scotland in the tackle and our players will be feeling the effects this morning. Some of the hits were like car crashes.

I thought Sean Lamont tried valiantly as well. He made a couple of silly errors at times, but he looked the most dangerous of our backs. He never lets his head go down, which is a valuable characteristic in a game like this, where you just know you are going to be under pressure.

Ruaridh Jackson didn't have his best game. He put in some clever kicks, and on another day, and against a less effective defence, something might well have come from them. But he also put in a couple of silly passes, including the one that led to Willie le Roux's try, and you just can't afford to do things like that against the Springboks.

I was also disappointed by Sean Maitland's performance because he just didn't look dialled in. He was definitely below par.

South Africa did not actually ask a lot of questions of Scotland. Next week's game against Australia will be a more searching examination of every aspect of our game. Australia will vary the attack, move the defence around a bit. It's pretty ominous, too, that the Australian scrummage seems finally to be operating effectively.

What changes should Scotland make for that match? Scott Johnson has hinted that he has a selection plan in mind and the physical pounding his players took yesterday will convince him that some will need more recovery time than he has available. A six-day turnaround is brutal in Test rugby, all the more so when you've just gone 15 rounds with the Springboks. I certainly think there is a case for a new half-back partnership. Greig Laidlaw struggled to assert himself around te rucks yesterday and I thought that Chris Cusiter made a difference when he came on. Likewise, Duncan Weir looked pretty assured when he came on for Jackson, although he had the advantage of coming into a side that was finally getting onto the front foot now and then.

I was impressed by the determination South Africa showed in trying to keep Scotland out. Scotland attacked pretty imaginatively towards the end, especially with clever little kicks, but South Africa were impressively obstinate.

They will be as proud of Scotland's zero as they will be of their own 28 points.