PERTH, Australia (AFP) - International player of the year Bryan Habana blamed himself for South Africa's 16-9 Tri-Nations loss to Australia here on Saturday.

The flying winger, one of the stars of South Africa's World Cup triumph in France last year, came desperately close to scoring a try which would have levelled the scores with 14 minutes left of a grimly contested match.

But he was denied by a last-ditch tackle from Wallabies' replacement back Ryan Cross -- one of three South African chances that went begging.

"For the standards I set myself I feel I let the team down in that situation and I think I should have maybe finished off better after having played a lot of rugby," Habana, 25, told reporters after the match.

"I've played at the highest level for so long I think that maybe I could have done a little bit better.

"For the pressure I put on myself to make a difference and make a huge contribution to this team, I let myself personally down this evening and... (I let) the team down as well.

"So credit to Ryan Cross," said Habana, who came off the field with an injured left shoulder.

An unprompted Habana continued to take responsibility for the defeat which left South Africa level on five points with New Zealand as they head home for their final three Tri-Nations matches next month.

"At the end of the day we, the Springbok team, pride ourselves on execution on specific things and I wasn't able to execute," Habana said.

"At the end of the day you don't get many opportunities on the international circuit to execute... we had a couple of executions which didn't go to plan and that probably cost us the game more than what the Wallabies really beat us."

South Africa's remaining three matches of the series are against New Zealand in Cape Town on August 16, Australia in Durban on August 23 and the Wallabies again in Johannesburg on August 30.