Cape Town - All Blacks flyhalf Beauden Barrett has experienced the cruelty that Test rugby can provide.

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In his last Test he scored four tries in a remarkable performance against Australia, but on Saturday against the Springboks he missed four conversion attempts.

In the end those eight missed points were crucial, but he was defended stoutly by his coaches Steve Hansen and Ian Foster in the post-match press conference, according to the NZ Herald website.

Jordie Barrett, his younger brother, is an accomplished goalkicker, and so is Damian McKenzie who was on the field for the fourth quarter, but Beauden kept the tee despite missing three relatively easy ones.

"Yes, it's one of those things we left to them on the field," said Foster when asked whether there was a discussion about changing the goalkicker after the 36-34 defeat.

"We talked about the possibility of changing. Beaudy I think kicked two of the first four. I admire him for stepping up and he hit the post with his last two, so that shows you the margins. I know that they would have discussed it... but Beaudy obviously thought he was kicking pretty well."

"I'd add to that too," Hansen said.

"Goalkicking is a really difficult job... Tiger Woods hits a good golf ball but now and then hits a bad one. It's part of our sport. You only have to be that much out and you don't get the results. We could sit here and say, 'yeah, kick a couple of goals and we win the game', but that's not why we lost the game."