Christchurch debacle was writing on the wall.

One of the strongest creeds in the Proteas men’s team for the last seven years has been ‘no excuses.’ It started in India in 2015 when they played three out of four Tests on lamentably poor, under-prepared pitches on which they were duly dismembered in embarrassing fashion by the home side.

Led by AB de Villiers and Hashim Amla, they vowed not even to talk about the pitches, let alone give anyone cause to believe they were using them as an excuse for losing so heavily. This mantra has grown in stature ever since. Making excuses was ‘soft’. It was not the ‘Proteas way.’ So embedded has this approach become that it now extends to ‘reasons’ rather than excuses. It has resulted in players and management not even allowing themselves to acknowledge what is right in front of their faces.

Being bowled out for 95 and 111 to lose by an innings and 276 runs provides a big enough shock and distraction to blur what were already blurred minds.

"As coaches we try and find the reasons… we do a lot of talking before a series, a lot of planning. The plans, I think, are right. We just haven't been able to implement those plans. And the energies have been low..." said a confused Mark Boucher after the second day.

“It is something I am trying to wrap my head around it. I was trying to process it last night and still haven’t come to anything yet,” said captain Dean Elgar after the car had finally crashed on the third day. “Hopefully, in the next day or two, I’ll be able to put my finger on why.”

Boucher, too, had his finger on anything but the pulse of the problem. “We can't exactly put our finger on it, but it's certainly something that we will go back to our drawing board and try to find a way to become better at the start of a series.”

Elgar tries hard to be fair but, like all batting captains, he just couldn’t help obliquely pointing a finger towards the bowlers which is hilarious when the batters get bowled out for 95 midway through the first day of a Test match. He suggested the bowlers might have been ‘trying too hard’ to take wickets which is like blaming thirsty people for trying too hard to find water after three days lost in a desert.

“The harder you try, the more you fail. That might have been a scenario but it's not an excuse. It allowed their middle-to-lower order to come in and dictate the pace of play. That was down to us not being consistent enough,” Elgar said, again adamantly refuting the notion of excuses.

I wonder if I might help with the leadership’s finger location problem. It took two and half days to travel from South Africa to Christchurch and the squad immediately entered a ‘hard’ MIQ (Managed Isolation and Quarantine) establishment. For the first three days it was solitary confinement in their rooms before a couple of ‘blue sky’ breaks for the next three days and then limited training in small groups, which is of very limited value, especially before a Test match.

If jet-lag is to be tackled head-on, the first three days are vital. You need to force yourself to stay awake during the day and avoid the temptation to speak to family and friends at 2:00am. I know how hard that can be. The SA players were trapped in their rooms by themselves. They would have slept when they were tired and Facebooked when they were awake. I know how easy that can be.

Practically, preparation for the first Test consisted of three days of nets. Physically and mentally it was worse than that. On four previous tours to New Zealand I struggled more than most with jet-lag and the time difference. Even after a fortnight there was an issue with reflexes and clarity of thought – which most travellers can brush off and get away with, especially when your only participation in elite sport is to describe it on the radio. But when you’re in the thick of it, you have no chance. We hear all the time about elite sports contests being decided by the ‘one-percenters.’

That was unlikely to be the case this time around because this New Zealand team, and squad, is at least 10% better than South Africa’s in every department, so they were always starting as strong favourites. But, just as England’s outclassed cricketers were ‘sitting ducks’ without a warm-up match before the Ashes, the Proteas had no chance of even competing in the first Test.

South Africans might find a source of perverse pride in the fact that the captain and coach are in complete denial about this: “I am not going to use quarantine as an excuse. We are here to represent our country and we need to be firing by the time match day comes. If that is an excuse, it's a very weak excuse to be using,” Elgar said. It may be a weak ‘excuse’ but from a sports and medical science point of view, not to mention a cricketing one, it’s a pretty solid fact.

“It would have been nice to play a practise match,” Elgar let slip. “But…” yes, we know. No excuses. Just as England might have expected to put up a better showing in the Ashes before the inevitable defeat, South Africa would almost certainly have provided some respectable cricket in different circumstances. Boucher was mystified by the lack of energy and intensity of his team yet it is no mystery at all.

In the days when South African Super Rugby teams travelled to Australasia to play a match five days after arrival, the stories of sleep-chaos amongst the squads became legendary. All manner strong medication was used to try and force the pace of jet-lag recovery but they rarely worked and the players never fully adjusted unless they were on at least a four-week tour. The difference, of course, is that they only had to be ‘up’ for a 90-minute training session or match each day. Otherwise they could collapse back into bed. It’s a vast difference hoping, or even expecting, to remain ‘sharp’ for seven hours a day.

“I can honestly see why the people are probably saying (critical) things but, no excuses, we just haven't been good enough in all three departments,” Boucher said. One other comment should be added to the story and it came from Rassie van der Dussen before the Test match started. “We’re not complaining about the travel or quarantine, but I hope we never have to do it again.” Make of that what you will.

The world is what it is. Nobody is to blame for this situation. Of course South Africa should have agreed to travel and play with the itinerary rather than refuse. To do so would have been almost Australian.

Expect an improved performance from South Africa in the second Test, and hope for a different result, but certainly don’t expect one.