Argentina coach Marcelo Loffreda says he was left confused by some of referee Steve Walsh's calls during his side's semifinal defeat to South Africa but did not believe the official was to blame for the Pumas’ loss. Loffreda stated his players were their own worst enemies. A number of mistakes were made to prove costly with the Springboks jumping on every opportunity.

"I am very proud of my team and players but we were the victims of our own mistakes," he said.

"We were beaten by a great team - they were markedly better than us.

"South Africa are very dangerous, and when they have space or when you make mistakes, knock-ons or drop the ball, they take advantage and score. We paid dearly for the mistakes we made."

However, Loffreda still remained perplexed at some of Walsh’s rulings.

"We could not understand the referee in the first half, he never explained what was going to on in the mauls," he said.

"We were twice done for obstruction, but they did it in the second half and they got away with it. That is what annoyed me.

"We had issues with the referee when he wasn't saying hands off. We are used to hearing this. That is the difference between the two hemispheres.

"Nonetheless, it is not the reason for the result tonight."

Meanwhile, Argentina captain Agustin Pichot was in tears as he praised his team’s efforts at the Rugby World Cup.

"We really believed we could achieve something, but something was missing," he said.

"I won't have another chance to be a world champion, and that really hurts more than anything else.

"We have been waiting for so long, so it's a really sad day. We did everything, but it was beyond our reach.

"We made the semifinals and we wanted to be world champions but it wasn't possible.