The All Blacks have beaten the Springboks by 57 to 0 this evening in Auckland and stretch their lead at the top of the Rugby Championship.
A lot was spoken about this Springboks team in the lead-up to the game – an unbeaten run in 2017 including a strong performance away from home last week against the Wallabies suggested that tonight might be an classic clash between two old rivals.
Both sides were missing some top talent but it still promised to be an enthralling match-up between two world rugby powerhouses.
In the first ten minutes of the game the Boks partly lived up to this hype and it looked like the All Blacks were going to have to work hard to earn a home win.
But in the following 30 minutes the ABs took almost every single opportunity that occurred and ran in four converted tries.
Most of them were off the back of errors from the Boks rather than the result of a lengthy build up of possession from the Kiwis.
It wasn’t that the Kiwis scored at will like they perhaps did against the Wallabies in the first half of the Sydney match of this year’s championship – it was more that they pounced so effectively when a half chance showed its face.
There are several issues that the Boks will have to look at before their next match.
The set piece was flawed from start to finish. A lot was made of the clash between the hookers today – Marx vs Coles was meant to be an exciting head-to-head but in the end it was totally one-sided. Marx just couldn’t get his timing right and the Boks line out suffered. It got to the point where a Bok line out was an attacking opportunity for the All Blacks and certainly not the solid foundation that it should be.
In the scrum too not only was the Boks performance poor but it ended up being the source of far too many penalties for the men in black. The front five will be truly disappointed with today and will have to work hard to regain confidence moving forward.
When they did have the ball, the Boks attack just didn’t click tonight. Obviously that’s partly down to the oppressive defence from the Kiwis but the South Africans seemed to struggle with switching to Plan B or C once it was clear that Plan A was not going to work.
A lot was expected from Jantjies – he’s shown in recent months that his pure talent was being backed up with control and consistency at the international level. Going up against the best No.10 in the world was going to be a real demonstration of how far he’s come and sadly today the demo went as well as Apple’s recent demo of their new Face ID – crash and burn!
To be fair it’s always going to be hard to be a No.10 when your forwards are going backwards but Jantjies struggled to get in the game. His early penalty goal miss was a rare one and who knows what would have happened if he’d slotted it but from that early point onwards he was far too quiet.
Their restarts were confusing and they had a number of them. Far too many times they kicked the restart deep with the hope that one of the wingers would be able to sprint up and challenge. But the kicks were far too deep and what we saw time and again were All Blacks having time and space to take the catch cleanly and then decide how to respond. When the Boks dragged the restart shorter they got to compete and caused the Kiwis some difficulty.
In a way this demonstrates one of the bigger problems that the South Africans face – when they are under pressure they are not making good decisions. More and more in sport there is discussion about how the best of the best are able to make good decisions under fatigue and under pressure. Today the Boks demonstrated that at the moment they are not the three-dimensional team that they want to be.
From the New Zealand point of view they will obviously be happy with the number of points they scored – hard not to be when you rack up over 50 against a tier one competitor.
But what will arguably put a bigger smile on their faces is the 0 points conceded. The Boks missed one penalty kick at goal and that was really their only scoring opportunity.
The All Blacks defence stood up strong and while the Boks didn’t present an overly challenging attack, it is still an impressive feat to have kept their discipline and organisation for 80 minutes.
The Boks will be hugely disappointed with the way that they lost today and it’ll be interesting to see how they respond. To be fair to them they have been travelling a lot in the first four rounds of the Championship and now get to return home for the final two rounds.
A good win against the Aussies in two weeks time will help heal the wounds from today and then they will have another chance to test themselves against the best of the best in early October when the All Blacks travel to Cape Town.
The All Blacks coaching staff will have some time to rethink how they define success and motivate their squad who are running away with this year’s Championship.
Winning at home like they did today is impressive but if they can go and play like that on the road as well then that is truly scary.
Rugby Tragic
Roar Rookie
Your father was a wise man Dav ... it tore our country apart and left many scarred for a long time... The Waikato game had to be called off as protesters covered the playing surface with nails and tacks before the game started ... there were shipping containers used to barricade the ground and stop mass movement of people.. the Boks had to sleep at the park in Wellington as team movement was being stalked every day... there was domestic violence abound... then there was the flour bomb test... I was there ... it was very dangerous a flour back hit Gary Knight, could have killed him.... no it was not worth it..
Rugby Tragic
Roar Rookie
Dav, you have every right to be angry ... and I sympathise with you. I have made some good friends on the Roar and it is pressing to 'read the hurt' and no one true rugby fan is laughing. So that you understand Dav, I follow the Blues in SR but before then Auckland, where tribalism against other provinces was quite fierce... now we, Blues and Auckland are the butt of all jokes but guess what .... next year, I'll believe all their hype and subscribe again.. The Blues and Auckland (in Mitre 10 cup) are the underachievers ... For 14 years we have been laughed at ... 14 years is a long time ... Over that 14 years Boks have won a RWC, and Semis in another, won a RC ... Dav, the good times will return...
Rugby Tragic
Roar Rookie
THAT, if true is very depressing to hear mate
DavSA
Guest
Etsebeth has over 50 test caps . Moster was one of the better jumpers in Superugby . Never got dominated by anyone. Last World Cup semi it was an Etzebeth , De Jäger combination that were if anything better than NZ on the day. EE and PSDT had amongst the best line out stats in Superugby.Something else went wrong . Marx despite looking shaky on throw ins actually had one of the better records in Superugby line outs .AB's did put pressure on him but that should not account for 5 , yes 5 line out steals off the Bok ball. I believe and saw a lot of overelaboration by the Boks which seemed to confuse Marx more than AB pressure did . I am afraid this goes to preparation . The likes of EE , Mostert , PSDT and De Jager did not become poor line out forwards overnight. We all knew ...Knew that Rhule does not have a fondness for tackling . No more evidence needed. We all knew ....Knew that Nyakane is a very poor scrummager . Last year for The Boks and this year for The Bulls confirmed that . He gave away 3 or 4 penalties scrum time. ....No the problem is the coaching staff who need to front up , stop b..l sh.....g us that this was a learning curve and stop lying to themselves . They were hopelessly , hopelessly out of their depth .
Rugby Tragic
Roar Rookie
They didn't lose....England won both tests with largely their B side against the Puma's...
Rugby Tragic
Roar Rookie
Sorry Mike, can you please remind me how long ago it was when the Boks 'dominated' the AB lineout?... (serious question)
Dr katz
Guest
All i kept thinking as a wallies supporter is thank christ (or any diety of your choosing) we wernt playing thge AIGs. They were really really on song.
Kelefua
Guest
Great win for ABs. Almost makes one forget the Lions series... almost;) Consistency from here and keep building those combos. Congrats on the the debutants. Big SBW fan here but the midfield combo of Crotty & ALB looks really solid in defence & awesome on attack, maybe impact bench role for SBW in the not too distant future? McKenzie finding his way but still not up to the level of Dagg & B Smith in terms of field placement, reading opposition plays & knowing when to show ones hand. But it'll come. Positive for Spring Boks is that it can't get any worse than that.
DavSA
Guest
Hilarious take on Sport 24 , " a samoosa has 3 more points than The Boks! "
cuw
Guest
@ biltongbek have u seen the 2nd rower who plays for Northampton - Ribbands i think is his name. had a storming game against Bath scoring 2 trys and MOM. he is huge and looks like boy. am sure Eddie will have him in his squad soon , if he is qualified.
Yeah muzzo, I think people underestimate the impact of having so many experienced players leaving SA shores, the transfer of knowledge is all lost
republican
Guest
.........firstly, the Kiwis have always been dominant in it, thats my point and whether you believe this revelation diminishes the sport or not, it is an issue for the code I believe, further evidenced by this extreme defeat of the Boks by the 'dream team'. I recall the collective Kiwi nation banging on about how dominant Australia were at Cricket in the same vain, the difference being that Cricket offers a far more level playing field than does Union at an international tier, while the Ozzie dynasty pales compared to NZ's in Union and now NZ are superior to Australia in Cricket, which speaks volumes for the sport. I make no apology for saying that Union has become steadily more droll due to NZ's dominance, while your analogy with Basketball although an accurate one, only reinforces my opinion, since Basketball is also boring, whenever the USA are pitted against anyone else i.e. This is why 80% of those who turn up to watch the Bledisloe in Australia are either travelling Kiwis or ex pat Kiwis. Why any Australian would choose to subject themselves to this ground hog day fait accompli is beyond me.
DavSA
Guest
Yes RT , those images that came across from 1981 on our tv screens impacted on many of us ..not all though. I had recently completed my military service and was pretty gung ho about it , but my father was quite affected . Felt they should have come home . A game of rugby was not worth it he said.
Scrumma
Guest
Yeh but they lost ?
DavSA
Guest
Thanks Pinetree I knew there was a first of one or the other kind to Wales . Jumped the gun a bit.
Muzzo
Guest
Yep biltongbek, it's a sad state of affairs, that the SARU need to address, or have the guts to address. So sad to see the likes of Willie Le Roux, turning in a massive game for his English club Wasp's today, & he is only one of the few, gun SA players playing over sea's.Cheers.
Thanks RT, yes I agree there is a culmination of factors influencing our situation, it isn't just one thing. Administration Coaching Exodus of experience Politics Selections
Muzzo
Guest
Well said RT, & I do wholly agree with your comments, as I would personally stand side by side, with you on that particular argument. The Bok's, for 96 years now, have, in in many Kiwi's eye's, that know anything about rugby, are in my view, the ultimate challenge!!! This was reaffirmed, at a pre game function, which included past & present AB's, in Dunedin a few years ago.
Rugby Tragic
Roar Rookie
England virtually did just that in June of this year for their 2 test series v Arg, as the England squad was cherry picked for the BIL tour to NZ
Rugby Tragic
Roar Rookie
Sorry Harry...