The Springboks have refused to criticise French referee Romain Poite despite the controversial sending off of hooker Bismarck du Plessis.



He was given his marching orders for two yellow cards, but the first one was an extremely harsh call on the Sharks No 2, as his tackle on Dan Carter was perfectly timed and legal.



Springboks coach Heyneke Meyer was asked numerous times in the post match press conference about the dismissal, but he didn't bite.



"We don't have any excuses, we wanted it to be a spectacle," Meyer said.



"I don't think we played that well, but I always thought we had a chance after halftime.



They outplayed us for the first 30 minutes, but I really felt there was a momentum shift after that driving maul.



When pressed again, Meyer made the following brief comment.



"I truly believe that guys are well educated so we've got a saying that the ref is always right," he said.



Springboks captain Jean de Villiers also wouldn't get into a debate over du Plessis' red card but gave his backing to the player.



"He is disappointed, Bismarck is a physical player. He is a very good tackler and I think he executes his tackles very well," de Villiers said.



"So he was disappointed that he only played 30 minutes of this game. We're all disappointed, we're disappointed with the results and that hurts.



"It is what it is and we have to move on and learn from this because at the end of the day, whatever decisions were made we didn't play well tonight.



"Even though we lost on the scoreboard and had 14 men, we didn't play well, we didn't defend well and that's the concerning thing for me."



Meanwhile, All Blacks coach Steve Hansen revealed the news wasn't good for first-five Carter who will be out for a while with the shoulder injury picked up in du Plessis' tackle.



"I am not sure how long he's going to be out for but he's done an AC and they're usually four to six weeks," he said.



Hansen said he felt the match was hugely physical, but one that his players excelled in.



"It was a really intense test match, one that had a bit of everything and I'm very proud of how we came through it," he said.



"In games like tonight you need the big players to stand up and they did.



"But so did some of the younger guys which was really pleasing, the experience they'll bank after tonight will be invaluable for us going forward. One or two of them may have put to rest the doubters about them, they've certainly got rid of those question marks for those people.



"I think all New Zealanders can be very proud of their team tonight."



As for the yellow cards, Hansen admitted the first one shown to du Plessis was a tough call on the Springboks hooker.



"In an intense battle like that you're going to get moments and the referee makes decisions," he said.



"He's got to make them in that moment and perhaps Bismarck may have been unlucky in Dan's yellow card, but he probably got the other one's right.



"We've got no complaints, that's rugby and you just have to get on with it."