Gregor Townsend was left to bemoan a mixture of profligacy and poor refereeing decisions after his Scotland team fell to defeat against South Africa at Murrayfield.

Townsend’s side were beaten 32-15 by the world champions in a pulsating Test match which had been far tighter than the final scoreline suggested.

Indeed, South Africa’s head coach Rassie Erasmus and captain Eben Etzebeth admitted afterwards that the final scoreline flattered them.

Scotland created numerous good chances to score in the second half during a period where they had managed to rattle the Springboks. But they were unable to take any of them on what was ultimately an afternoon of immense frustration for Townsend and his players.

The Scotland head coach admitted that his team had been wasteful, but also insisted that English referee Christophe Ridley got key decisions wrong.

Most notably the decision which saw Scotland lock Scott Cummings shown a red card for what was perceived to be a dangerous clearout in a ruck on South Africa lock Franco Mostert after just 11 minutes.

Ridley was alerted to the incident by the TMO, before sending Cummings to the sin bin. That was then upgraded to a 20-minute red card, meaning Cummings was unable to come back on, with Scotland eventually replacing him with Max Williamson.

‘At the time, I thought the referee had got the wrong person,’ said Townsend. ‘I thought Rory Darge had more [of an influence in the incident].

‘But there was massive mitigating circumstances. Scott was there to clear the contact and the scrum-half popped up as he was clearing, which took Scott off his feet and he did land on the jackling player’s leg.

‘But it’s such a dynamic game and you’re hitting those contacts at huge speed. I thought it was a very harsh red.’

Townsend also questioned the process which saw a Ben White try ruled out in the first half after Huw Jones was adjudged to have knocked on in the build-up.

The Scotland head coach also felt that South Africa were fortunate not to receive a second yellow card, shortly after the two-try Makazole Mapimpi had been sent to the bin in the second half.

‘There was some skill execution we have to improve, but we had a bit of bad luck,’ said Townsend.

‘We stole a lineout in our own 22 and the ball bounces into their [South Africa’s] hands and they score seven points when they hadn’t had much pressure.

‘We’ve obviously had a try that was chalked off three phases later for a knock-on. It was a knock-on, we can’t get away from that.

‘But I don’t know if you’re supposed to go back more than two phases with these things.

‘I also thought South Africa were going to get another yellow card. It was cynical play five metres from the try line.

‘Clearly, we didn’t get the rub of the green with some decisions. But South Africa deserved to win.’

The game was poised at 19-15 heading into the final 20 minutes as Scotland looked to claim what would have been a historic win over the world champions.

But, in the end, they wasted too many chances due to some handling errors and wayward passes.

Townsend insisted that he would take a lot of pride from his team’s performance, especially given the way that they had matched the physicality of the South Africans.

‘I thought it was a brilliant Test match — hugely physical,’ added the Scotland head coach.

‘We matched South Africa for a lot of the game and we were down to 14 players for 20 minutes. The team looked mentally strong.

‘A couple of skill errors cost us and we didn’t get the rub of the green with decisions, clearly. South Africa then showed their power in the last 10 minutes.

‘That effort in the second half was outstanding. To open up their defence at times and match their physicality. We will be frustrated because there were a couple of opportunities out there.

‘We played one of our best games of the last few years and pushed the world champions very close.

‘There are areas we have to improve, but some of the defence today was world-class. The effort that went in is all we want from a Scotland team.’

Townsend confirmed that back-rower Jack Dempsey suffered a shoulder injury which is likely to rule him out of next week’s clash with Portugal at the very least.

Meanwhile, Scotland captain Sione Tuipulotu admitted that the team had fallen short due to too many missed chances.

‘I’m proud of the boys and the performance they put out,’ said Tuipulotu. ‘Especially from the forward pack, a lot of those guys had to play big minutes.

‘I thought they really fronted up physically. So yeah, I am proud of our performance, just disappointed we didn’t win. South Africa won the try count 4-0.

‘I thought the last bit of execution really let us down, especially in the finish zone, close to the line at least.

‘We were down there for a big part of that second half and we didn’t walk away with tries that we should have walked away with.

‘So yeah, we’ve got to take responsibility for that. The game was there to be won and we didn’t execute.’

South Africa skipper Etzebeth said: ‘I think the scoreline probably flattered us, if we are being honest.

‘It was a really tough Test match. We always strive to be better, but credit to Scotland for making it a really difficult match for us.’