Gregan bemoans 'lost opportunities'

Wallaby captain George Gregan, who played his last test on Ellis Park, bemoaned the fact that his team failed to grab the numerous opportunities they created, during their 24-16 Tri-Nations loss to the Springboks at Ellis Park on Saturday.

The game brought down the curtain on the 2006 Tri-Nations season, with the Boks taking their record over the Wallabies in Johannesburg to eight wins in nine outings.

And for Gregan, who has never been able to beat the Boks at Ellis Park, it was the last time he would run out on this world famous ground in a Wallaby jumper.

While he is set to retire only after the World Cup in France next year, he knows that his 127th international was the last time he would play at Ellis Park.

The next Springbok versus Wallaby test at Ellis Park won't be for another three to four years, as these cycles go and when it comes round to this ground again Gregan would already have retied.

"These things [fixtures lists] go around in three/four-year cycles and I'm certainly not going to be playing till I'm 40 ... I'm not a basketball player," he said when asked if it was indeed his last game at Ellis Park.

It was a bitterly disappointing farewell for the veteran scrum-half, who is continuing to extend his world record of test caps to a mark that nobody is likely to match in future.

"We created enough opportunities to snatch a win, but the details wasn't there in our work," Gregan said about his team's inability to secure a win.

"They [South Africa] have a good scrambling defence. They work hard and they make you work hard to get any points, so when you get opportunities you have to take them.

"We suffered from that [not taking the opportunities], and we're the team on the wrong side of the scoreboard."

The Wallaby captain said the Boks took the game away from the Wallabies in the latter stages of the second-half, despite the Wallabies going into the half-time break level at 3-all and enjoying a 10-9 lead going into the final quarter.

"At half-time we knew we were in it," Gregan said.

"It was a very fierce contest and we knew it would come down to who would control possession and take their opportunities in the second-half.

"They got off to a good start with some brilliant goals and a good try, but we showed a lot of character to bounce back and making it a three-point ball game.

"But they got away with it in the end, so it was disappointing coming here and not having a good final result to the season."

Wallaby coach John Connolly also spoke about his team's missed opportunities.

"I guess we are really disappointed with the result," Connolly said in his post-match reaction. "Our execution let us down. We had a few borderline calls, but we trained very well this week and gave ourselves the best chance possible."

Connolly felt he had plenty of positives to take from the game, even though his team's set pieces were not all that great - taking a real beating in the scrums and conceding a number of their own line-outs to the Boks.

"Positives are our line-out competed well and there was no lack of effort, but we just didn't gel. We are, however, delighted with our progress in the Tri-Nations. We can take quite a bit from the competition.

"We probably played a bit flat and they put us under pressure. We gave away too much ball at the back of the line-out, but we have no excuses and it just shows that South Africa are difficult to beat here especially at altitude."