There are two sides to every story, though.
And Scotland’s part is for all of their good work, particularly at the ruck where they disrupted ball time and again, they left points out on the Murrayfield pitch.
Composure at the crucial moment let them down, which also feels like a familiar story when up against the very top nations.
After Pollard had made it a seven-point game, Scotland had a spell in South Africa’s 22.
The world champions were rocking, but a decision to go for the short side gave life to their defence and the Scots were shunted back and eventually turned over.
At that point South Africa were down to 14 men, Makazole Mapimpi was in the sin-bin. It was the last chance they got to sniff a try and it passed them by.
It was far from the only one, however.
“The opportunities Scotland created in the second half, they had five or six chances in the 22 which they probably should have scored from,” Wright said.
“But a combination of a lack of accuracy and good scramble defence kept them out.”
Townsend himself acknowledged that his side’s wastefulness – coupled with good defence from South Africa – cost them a marquee win.
“South Africa then showed their power in the last 10 minutes,” the Scotland head coach told BBC Sport Scotland.
“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.”
