A penalty try just two minutes from time saw Wales beaten 31-30 by the Springboks after they twice opened up commanding leads in the second and final Test.
Jamie Roberts and Alex Cuthbert scored first-half tries for the tourists and Ken Owens touched down shortly after the interval, while Dan Biggar finished with 15 points after landing six from seven attempts from the tee.
But the Boks scored a brace of tries in as many minutes just past the half hour and a Willie le Roux try with nine minutes left set up the late, late drama that denied Wales a first-ever Test win on South African soil.
“I’m proud of the effort but gutted about the result,” said Gatland, after Wales were much improved from their opening Test defeat in Durban the previous week.
“I’m proud of the performance, the turnaround and how the guys fronted up. We said we were poor in the first half last week and we worked really hard to put that right. It’s a big improvement in terms of the way we played and we scored some really good tries.
“We were playing really well at 17-0 up and we’ve gone from a good position and quadrupled our errors. We’ve gone from a penalty to another penalty to a yellow card to another yellow card and again at this level, with top-quality referees, you don’t get away with that. Those are big moments in the game and we said to our players it’s about game management.
“I think it was a game that was there for us to win but the best teams in the world never give up. It just shows you at this level it’s about playing for the whole 80 minutes and being accurate when you do come under some pressure. In the last 10 minutes they threw everything at us and it was unfortunate with the penalty try in the last couple of minutes.”
Gatland had no complaints with referee Steve Walsh’s decision to award the penalty try at the death after full back Liam Williams was adjudged not to have used his arms when his desperate tackle forced Springbok flyer Cornal Hendricks into touch out on the right-hand side.
It was a harsh lesson for the apologetic youngster, with Gatland aware that the tiniest of errors can make a mountain of difference in Test-match rugby.
“I don’t have an issue with the decision,” added Gatland. “We’ve made an error defensively, which is disappointing: Hendricks has got outside George (North) and unfortunately Liam’s come in and led with his shoulder.
“He’s got to learn from that because what you’ve got to keep reminding players (is that), depending on the level that they play at, they can get away with things. At this highest level, you just do not get away with anything and you’ve got to be squeaky clean.
“There were a few indiscretions that were costly to us and I think he’ll learn from that experience and hopefully he doesn’t do it again.”
Wales could still have won it as they regained possession as the clock ticked down but the otherwise impressive Biggar twice fell short with long-range drop goal attempts when Gatland would like to have seen his side work their way closer to the posts.
“I don’t think we got the last kick right. Mike Phillips made a bit of a break and we needed to get our backs on the right side of the field.
“Dan had already missed the first one from 40m and he missed the next one from 50m. We must make sure when those opportunities come along we have to be accurate.”
