Springbok Dirt Trackers coach Dick Muir lamented the ordinarily poor performance by his team after the English club champion Leicester stunned the World Cup holders South Africa 22-17 at Welford Road on Friday.

Leicester, playing without six England internationals and nine first-choice players, rallied from an early 0-8 deficit to lead 16-11 at half-time.

Scrumhalf Ben Youngs added two more penalties in a 17-point haul to make it 22-11, then limited the Springboks to just two penalties in the last 15 minutes of their European tour opener.

The hosts repulsed a sustained Springboks rally inside their 22 in the last minutes, finally forcing a knock-on by wing Odwa Ndungane to seal a great upset.

"I don't think I've ever seen [a South Africa pack] as bad as that, especially from a coaching perspective. We were given a bit of a lesson at the scrums," the Bok assistant coach, Muir, said.

"Hats off to the Tigers. They were incredibly strong in that department so we've got to go back to the drawing board."

It was an obviously delighted Leicester Tigers coach Richard Cockerill, who praised his team for their efforts.

"Our scrum was immense and Geoff Parling was superb in the front row," Cockerill said.

"Rugby can get quite scientific in its analysis these days. Sometimes you just need 15 blokes to come here and roll their sleeves up. The scientists can't quantify that. And that's what we did tonight."

After the Springboks play France next week, they return to England to meet Premiership leader Saracens, then face Italy and Ireland.

Muir, in charge of the Boks for their two mid-week games, admitted that his team will require a big step up in the weeks to come.

"You can't play this game without any possession," said Muir. "We were poor at the breakdown and poor at set pieces so we couldn't get the game going.

"We just move on. We came over here with an experiment and perhaps it didn't come off as planned.

Muir, the former Springboks centre, believes this defeat should spur the Tri-Nations and World Cup champs on to improved showings in the potentially imposing arenas of Toulouse, Udine and Croke Park.

The Test team will obviously look a very different selection, as none of the Test starting XV featured at Welford Road on Friday.

Muir admitted that "nobody likes losing".

"When you take a squad like this and have a short turnaround maybe you're not as well prepared as you might be.

"It will probably cause the guys to be a little bit more determined. When you're on the top of the pile there's a lot of sides who want to knock you off, so that's the territory we've created for ourselves."

Cockerill was keen to prove wrong those who questioned the timing of the game, given Leicester's lengthy injury list and its upcoming LV= Cup clash at Leeds on Sunday.

Cockerill said: "I'd have to take my hat off to the players. I read some criticism this morning about the fixture and the two sides that were put out.

"It was all about us tonight and the facilities we're trying to provide. Maybe South Africa are a little shell-shocked that club rugby can be like that.

"The spirit here is second to none and I don't know where it comes from. Our scrum was immense and Geoff Parling was superb in the front row.

"Rugby can get quite scientific in its analysis these days. Sometimes you just need 15 blokes to come here and roll their sleeves up. The scientists can't quantify that. And that's what we did tonight."