Mike Phillips has slammed the "punching and gouging" Springboks as the British and Irish Lions painfully licked their wounds following one of Test rugby's most ferocious matches.

Five Lions ended up in hospital following a game of savage, unrelenting intensity at Loftus Versfeld, while two more players – Springboks forwards Schalk Burger and Bakkies Botha – were summoned to attend disciplinary hearings.

And Phillips was left seething by South Africa's approach, which took just 32 seconds to surface when flanker Burger eye-gouged Lions wing Luke Fitzgerald.

The back-row giant ludicrously escaped with just a yellow card, when red was the only realistic choice for French referee Christophe Berdos.

"They (South Africa) seemed to be able to get away with a lot of punching, gouging and what not," said the Lions scrum-half.

"It (Burger incident) was a clear red card, as simple as that. You can't do things like that. It should have been a straight red and it cost us the game, really. There were punches going on off the ball throughout the game.

"All you can do is play by the rules. You can play hard, be a tough man on the pitch, but play within the rules.

"As a professional you work your socks off all week, you come to the pinnacle of your sport and things like that happen.

"You have just got to leave it in the referee's hands. Referees are paid to do a job and we are paid to try to entertain. Lukey (Fitzgerald) said he had to pull his (Burger's) hand off his eyes. That's not sport, that's not the way we play. It is not the gentlemanly thing to do – it's disgusting."

A game of shuddering intensity was won with the final kick when Springboks substitute and local favourite Morne Steyn landed a remarkable penalty from four metres inside his own half after Ronan O'Gara illegally challenged Fourie du Preez in mid-air.

It secured a 28-25 verdict for the world champions, condemning the Lions to a record seventh successive Test defeat on tour and rendering next Saturday's series finale in Johannesburg an irrelevance.

The Lions led 19-8 with 17 minutes left, and even when Jaque Fourie scored a late try that television official Stuart Dickinson spent an age deliberating over, fly-half Stephen Jones' fifth successful penalty brought them back into it at 25-25. Jones finished with 20 points, including the conversion of full-back Rob Kearney's early try, yet South Africa refused to lie down as touchdowns by Fourie, Bryan Habana and J P Pietersen kept them in contention.

"We thought it was our day," added Phillips. "It is gutting to lose in the last second like that – it's horrible.

"People said we had no chance, but we were by far the better team."

Berdos had little option but to rule uncontested scrums from the 46th minute after Lions props Gethin Jenkins (cracked cheekbone) and Adam Jones (dislocated shoulder) both left the field. And the Lions' desperate misfortune cost them dear, with South Africa enjoying a reprieve in an area of the contest where they were comfortably second-best.

Centres Brian O'Driscoll (concussion) and Jamie Roberts (wrist), plus wing Tommy Bowe (elbow) all followed the front-row warriors to hospital, yet the Lions kept bouncing back up despite taking blow after blow.

The Lions can at least fly home next week with heads held high after restoring credibility to a reputation tarnished by Sir Clive Woodward's travelling circus in New Zealand four years ago.