Aussie were extremely lucky Kerevi didn’t get yellow carded. He was never going to charge that ball down and the challenge was clumsy and dangerous. I know he didn’t have intent but the end result was a shoulder to the neck/head area, and under current rules that’s a yellow at best. Just a dumb play, players have to be smarter and have to pull out of that when they see they don’t have a realistic chance. The other dumb play was Hanigan getting penalized, as soon as he went to ground you knew he was going to get penalized cos he made absolutely no effort to get out. Just a real dumb play.

I stayed up to watch this game and, like Moaman, regretted it. Such a drab game with such poor skills on show.
I finally went to bed with 15 mins still to play, neither team deserved to win.

I couldn’t believe how many times the Boks lost possession within 10m of the goaline. You can’t overthrow your jumper at a 5m lineout when the opposition doesn’t even jump and Marx did it twice. During the time I watched, England never remotely looked like scoring a try but they defended pretty well and kicked their goals.

Well, it will probably be a tight game again next week, the English will try to suffocate and the AB’s will struggle to put their best game out there, as seems to be the way when they play at ‘Twickers’

Great article. I feel exactly the same. I normally hate it when the AB’s lose but you have to salute the Bok’s bravery. They had no right to to be within 20 points of the AB’s if you looked over the game stats. How were they even breathing, let alone tackling after making over 220 tackles to the AB’s 46?
With 10 minutes to go I felt really weird. I wanted the AB’s to win, but at the same time I didn’t ??! The Bok’s deserved to win. They had played extremely badly in the two previous games and the NZ press had absolutely written them off. A last minute win to the Ab’s would have been an injustice and papered over the cracks of some real issues. A loss really hurts and is a catalyst for some needed deep introspection.

We tried to be too fancy and paid the price. Jordie Barrett should never have thrown that ball in that position, the Boks had 4 players streaking at the AB’s and Ioane was too far away to receive the pass without being under huge pressure. ALB got punished for a no-look pass, a crucial penalty was conceded seconds before halftime because we were trying to do too much deep inside our half. 17 points thrown away.

Our forwards were magnificent although the scrum wasn’t dominant. Can’t remember when we have had so much possession and territory against the Bok’s since….ever. But apart from the two wingers I thought our backs were pretty ordinary. BB was flatfooted an awful lot of the time, I don’t recall him running at full speed at anytime during the test. We conceded five tries yet the Boks barely had the ball all game.
The AB’s are a very good team, but they aren’t unbeatable or without issues as reported by the world media. Our defense is not up to required standard, BB can be a flakey goalkicker (something we just have to accept because he brings too much to the table to consider alternatives) and some of our talent isn’t the finished product just yet.

In this game the midfield pairing of ALB and Crotty was really ineffective despite the fact that an awful lot of the Bok backs normally are not great defenders. Shows we need at least one hard runner who can take contact and make gains. For all our possession and territory we did not cut them up in the backs apart from the first 2 tries, in fact most of the tries we simply wore them down til they ran out of defenders.

We didn’t respect the Bok danger as much as we should and deservedly paid the price. You can’t gift 17 points way and expect to win. We have done it before and won, but when that happens I have trouble believing we deserved it.

The Boks were magnificent, they deserved to win, just on heart alone. I salute you…and you did us a big favor.

I don’t think it was lack of commitment…it was exhaustion. NZ commentators were saying WB’s were looking exhausted just after halftime. Every 2nd half try there were examples of WB players just too tired to chase once a break had been made. I don’t know why, but WB’s seemed more exhausted than I have ever seen them just after half time. It was really really apparent in Retallick’s try, Hodge tried to chase…but had zero energy. Genia just gave up, too tired.

Good on the French, great try. Every minute of the 2nd half the AB’s just got progressively worse, no patience, poor discipline, poor tackling, abysmal option taking…and even worse execution. They will be flogged at training over the next week, and so they should be. Reckon the French had about 70-80% possession in that second half, great heart shown by the French.

Awful, awful performance by the AB’s, turnover after turnover and brain-dead decisions every time they have the ball…they all need a bollocking.

Wow, this is just an awful half of rugby. All Blacks have had no ball, and what possession they have had they have gifted away instantly…a really bad performance. Credit to the French, but the All Blacks are their own worst enemies.

Count me as one of the viewers who wished the red card wasn’t issued. I know technically it was correct following the letter of the law, but it has ruined the contest.

There’s been big problems for years regarding dangerous results from contestable kicks. I suppose the onus is directly on the players to respect the rules or suffer the consequences. You either have crippling penalties for noncompliance as we have now or you radically change some of the laws of the game…something like a 5 meter clear zone from the kicking team until the ball is caught or has landed…then there should be no chance of injuries.

These high contestable kicks have been the cause of many many injuries over the last couple of years, so force players to avoid dangerous situations with harsh penalties of change of laws.

Highlander, I too, can’t quite put my finger on the problem, but its there. Maybe, Hansen is letting Foster have more control now? That intercept try last nite was a prime example of why you don’t try to be too tricky at Test level, it was a poorly designed move and only had a chance if the Wallabies backline on that side went completely asleep…and Sopoanga should have taken contact when he was aware how fast the Wallabies were racing up.

Example of how trying to be too cute bites you in the behind, paired with a poor decision by Sopoanga to try to move the ball on.

Sopoanga certainly had a poor game, but I won’t write him off yet. If he doesn’t perform next chance he gets, then I might be concerned. I thought he was a lot better player than he showed last nite…we shall see. I DO NOT see McKenzie as a first five, at least nowhere near 3rd in the AB pecking order…lets see what he can do for the Chiefs next year, first.

Mounga should be ahead of McKenzie, he shows promise although he had a poor game against the Lions for the Crusaders and that may have counted against him.

The half-back for NZ under 20’s looks very very good, think Canterbury might have signed him. Watch him, he looks special.

Yeah, Hansen says the right things and is genuine. He gets a lot of rope from me as I think he’s the best coach we have ever had.

That being said, 2 losses and a draw so far this year isn’t fantastic. With bad luck we could have had 5 losses, with good luck we could be unbeaten. We aren’t a 5 loss-bad team, nor are we an unbeaten type team. We have a lot of inexperienced players and lots of key personnel unavailable. If you are going to have a down year in a World Cup cycle, this is the year to have it. We are having a down year, not so much in terms of results, but in terms of consistence of good performance.

Oh please, please, please let the English press reflect this attitude. Please let them say that England are the best team ever seen in World Rugby and all they need to do is turn up and win by 50 points against the Wallabies.

And then let things take their natural course, and Wallabies spank you as they do when you get delusions of grandeur.

Well done Wallabies, thoroughly deserved win. You defended exceptionally well,took your chances and looked more dangerous on attack. My goodness, what a difference an inform Genia makes to your team. The last 4-5 games he has played tremendously well, back to 2011 form and its had a huge impact on your team. Still think your weakness in the backline is Foley but you don’t have anyone better so Cheika gets a pass. Your pack was great, not dominant, but solid at set piece and competitive in the loose. They came with an attitude. Provided great ball for Genia and the wizardry of Beale and Folou.

Enjoy your win, you deserved it.

As for my lot, pretty disappointing. Seems to be the standard for the year. Only once in Albany against the Boks and 2 halves against the Wallabies have we played good footy. Rest of the time we have struggled IMHO. We have had lots of key injuries but all teams do at times, and you can only play as well as the opposition lets you, but I feel we have been underperforming a lot this year. Last year was exceptional, apart from Chicago, but we haven’t played consistantly to those levels this year.

Frankly. I think we have been outcoached several times this year and where has our superior fitness gone? We used to blow teams away or overtake them in the last 20 mins but hasn’t really happened this year, even the 2nd Bledisloe we didn’t show superior fitness.

I hope this loss causes a shakeup in the coaching planning/thinking. Somethings not right this year, can’t put my finger on it.

As for the players, a few of them have had forgetable international seasons so far. Last year I thought Perenia should start before Smith, such was his form. This year, first noticeable in the Lions series, he has been very panicky in tense situations and had questionable option taking. Barret has been great and not so great, sometimes in the same match. Ditto for McKenzie, who is too small for fullback, anyone NOT have the jitters when a high kick goes up in his direction?
I don’t know what to do with him, he can be great, he can be a liability a few times too.

I can’t really complain about our squad, I think we have the best players in it…we just aren’t performing to the the standards we thought they would. Hopefully, it is just a form issue for these guys and next year will be different. We have really missed Ben Smith and Izzy I feel. Hopefully, the coaches will reassess and change tacks a bit.

Still, a Wallaby win was a good thing for world rugby, not that I wanted us to lose. It’s also a good thing that the AB’s and coaches can brood a bit about this, they need to.

I think that the Bok’s deserved to win that. Magnificent, Great, Heroic performance by Marx. I hope the Boks can bottle this performance, it was tremendous apart from some aimless kicking.

Worst red card ever, not even a yellow, marginal penalty at best.

Good try to Havili. Overall, an adequate win. Another half where the AB’s lacked any accuracy, structure and execution. We have seen that several times this year. This is where you want your first five to step up and command the ship, I hope Foster gives Barrett a rocket. His first half was very good, his 2nd half was woeful. And the rest of the All Blacks followed suit.

And the AB’s blow another try from an absolutely woeful pass from Barrett.

This is, I think, the worst half of rugby I have ever seen from Barrett. EVERYTHING he has done has lacked accuracy.

I hate to say this, but I’m starting to think we need a few more loses to change our tactical direction and some of the personnel that are clearly coaches favorites and clearly not performing up to what we expect.

Under Barrett’s guidance from number 10, the AB’s look absolutely rudderless and have done all year. He’s an immensely gifted player but hes not what we need at first five. We need a first five that can take control of the game and kick his goals, something Barrett cannot consistently do.

Been a big SBW supporter in the past, but hes played consistently below the required standard this year. Time to give someone else a go. McKenzie is a brave player, but…he’s a liability under the high ball, is prone to push play and pretty ordinary defensively.

Ardie Savea, another gifted athlete…but who misses too many tackles for a starting flanker.

We seem to be playing a lot of great gifted bench players as starters, and its not working.

Funnily enough, I thought exactly the same about the AB’s coming back, but it annoyed me. I’m glad we won, so the Bledisloe is safe…but that win papers over some huge cracks in our team. A loss would have resulted in personnel changes going forward, which I’m not sure will be the case now.

Yeah, not sure you deserve to win if you concede 5 tries and miss 32 tackles. (AB’s were awful too)

And as for Foley, even when they were scoring all those tries they were never in control of the game…ever.

Ah yeah….NO!! Smith clearly lost the ball, and once the TMO was called they were never going to see a grounding for the Retalick effort. Interestingly, Owens is now saying he was signalling a penalty, not a try…I thought for all money he had signaled a try before going to the TMO to double check…at least that’s what it looked like.

Yeah, for as much as I was looking for a reason to validate the try…he clearly lost the ball. And you could see that in his face afterwards before they showed the replays.

100% agree, Machpants, but you left out another important point he made:-

Central to the problem is Beauden Barrett, a great footballer for sure, but he can’t map out a game and control the tempo like champion No. 10s of the past. The All Blacks have an exaggerated belief in their ability to blow opponents off the park.

Couldn’t put this better, myself