Warren Gatland’s men came within a whisker of an historic first success against the Springboks on South African soil after they lead 17-0 and then 30-17 with just nine minutes remaining in Nelspruit.
But a late Willie le Roux score and an even later penalty try robbed the tourists of a heroic end to the season, leaving Davies and co bitterly disappointed despite a huge improvement from the first Test in Durban.
“It’s devastating,” said Davies. “To have the game – 13 points up with 10 minutes to go – and let it slip is a tough pill to swallow.
“At the end of the day, it’s hats off to South Africa for getting back in the game. But we put it down to our errors again and we let them back in.
“We came second best. We bounced back from last week’s hugely disappointing performance and gave a performance that probably deserved a win, but we didn’t win and it’s a result-based game.”
Full back Liam Williams was the unfortunate culprit when it came to conceding the decisive score as he was adjudged to have led with his shoulder rather than his arms as he made a desperate, last-ditch tackle on Springbok wing Cornal Hendricks.
Gatland said that Williams had apologised to his team-mates in the immediate aftermath of the match at the Mbombela Stadium but Davies insists the whole team will take responsibility for the outcome and he backed his former Scarlets colleague to bounce back from the bitter experience.
“We’re not blaming anyone in particular, we’re a team and we didn’t perform for the full 80 minutes,” added Davies. “In the events before the penalty try we made mistakes that gave them the field position.
“I am sure Liam will come back from this. He has had an outstanding season and he’s been one of the form players in Wales.
“He puts a lot of pressure on his performance and he probably feels that he didn’t quite hit the level he wanted to. But no blame is being put on him. We rallied around him and he’s part of the team. At the end of the day, the squad of 23 wasn’t good enough to get the win.”
