Wales gave South Africa a run for their money

"We came here to grow as a team and we succeeded," Hansen said. "We won the respect of our opponents and I couldn't have asked for more from the guys.

"They played well and made us all proud. It would have been nice for them, for all the work they've put in, to have have had a bit of luck and got a result for themselves.

"You're always disappointed when you lose but we've shown in both these Test matches that if we can just learn to win then we can put some of these games away.

"We've made some good progress and the kids have worked really hard."

South Africa captain Bob Skinstad also praised the Welsh for their performance.

"The Welsh can be proud of what they achieved because they left a lot of experienced guys behind like the Quinnell brothers and Chris Wyatt," the Stormers No 8 said.

The Wales pack more than held its own

"If they are pleased and achieved what they set out to achieve then they should feel proud."

While Hansen was pleased with the progress that Wales had made on the short tour, the New Zealander felt that decision making had sometimes let them down at crucial moments.

South Africa replacement scrum-half Craig Davidson helped turn the match at Newlands through some canny tactical kicking in the wet conditions.

"We might have been guilty of trying to play too much football," Hansen added. "But that's the difference between maturity and inexperience about winning games.

"We had the opportunity to win it and we saw that in the jubilation of the South Africans at the end when the final whistle went."