It was a bitter pill to swallow for the Springbok team.
Their World Cup exit was even harder to stomach in the knowledge that an era had ended, Springbok scrumhalf Fourie du Preez said on Sunday. The defending champions bowed out 11-9 despite dominating vast portions of the nail-biting Wellington encounter on Sunday, and Lawrence found himself in the firing line from both Mark Reason and Brendan Gallagher of the Daily Telegraph newspaper.
It tends to be a fairly measured organ, but Reason in particular pulled no punches over New Zealand's Lawrence’s hotly-debated officiating of the key breakdown area.
“Lawrence made a complete hash of the game ... and the Springboks will be furious,” he wrote.
“They identified the breakdowns as a crucial area of the match beforehand, but they did expect there to be some sort of reffing".
“The South Africans thought that the tackler would have to release the ball-carrier. They thought that the off-side line would be respected. They thought that men would have to stay on their feet. Instead it was a shambles.
Yes, the Springboks are nothing like as efficient at the contact area without the great Juan Smith to clean out. But unless the IRB’s refs get a grip we are going to have some really dull semi-finals.Hopefully the guys who can really get a grip at the breakdown – the South African and Northern Hemisphere refs – will be put in charge of the final four matches.
South Africa will feel cheated and they have every right to complain.”
With the Springbok's out of contention - who will you be supporting now?