There is a whiff of myth about this Springboks side - and they were badly exposed by All Blacks' coaching team

The lead up to the Freedom Cup Test on Saturday was dominated by the South African mainstream press and much of social media declaring victory early and only having to show up to bash the All Blacks, with a bench so far in front of anything in world rugby that there was going to only be one outcome.

At the same time, the bookmakers of the world priced South Africa at 3-1 and said come and hit me. I am presuming there were an awful lot of South Africans who lost a pile given the discrepancy between these two positions.

Meanwhile, the reconstituted All Black coaching panel went away, rolled out their new no pods attacking structure and honed-in on the areas of weakness in the Springbok side which have been there over the last couple of years.

Anyone who has been around The Roar for a while will know I have often postured that the All Black ball movement provides a real issue for the slower African loose trio and can be used to isolate the trio away from the front five it was proved so again; although now, as the game pace increases, their preference for a lock at blindside has gone from being a positive to a serious negative.

No-one is ever going to accuse Franco Mostert of lacking effort, but on Saturday he looked like a man who couldn’t find his way into the match. Every time he arrived at where he thought he needed to be the ball and his opposite had already gone. And before someone thinks about playing the Peter Steph du Toit card, the Boks recent record when he starts at blindside is 7-6, hardly compelling. The return of Siya Kolisi will no doubt help, but it is not a solve.

As a tangible example look at New Zealand’s first try. Attack with width, Will Jordan comes back inside and where a covering defensive set of loose forwards might realistically be found, there is only daylight. Mostert did find his way to the right part of the park to at least get into the picture but his mates are nowhere to be seen.

It didn’t take any real rugby nous to recognise that with Richie Mo’unga back at 10 the All Blacks were going to kick significantly more than last week but it was the variety that surprised. They often used Beauden Barrett for the left to right wipers clearance, expertly chased by Jordan, while Mo’unga really mixed it up, but in the main, just kept the ball in front of his forwards, while often kicking to a contest. In contrast, his opposite Damian Willemse kicked a single time by my count.

There is no way you can control a Test match without a cohesive kicking strategy and Handre Pollard is seriously missed.

Perhaps the biggest surprise was the use of the bomb as an attacking plan from New Zealand; when Aaron Smith is dropping them from 25 out onto the South African back three you can be sure that the All Black coaching team has identified a significant weakness and the guys from the Republic did not handle the barrage at all well.

Add to that a defensive pattern that relies on line speed, midfield shooters and wingers being hard from outside to in, and to be fair it is a pattern that has worked well in the past, you are making a conscious decision to leave space, both out wide and through the middle if the opposition can get the ball there.

When faced with an opposition first five eighth who is comfortable varying his depth in the pocket, comfortable with holding the ball until those players over-commit and who also has the options of a giant number 12 and willing carriers in the loose forwards, then it feels like a defensive screen which is making a rod for its own back. Perhaps it is no surprise that New Zealand have not lost a match to South Africa when Mo’unga has started.

Much has been made of the detriment to New Zealand rugby from the departure of the South African sides, and don’t get me wrong, having the likes of the Sharks, Stormers and Bulls visiting Forsyth Barr stadium was always a huge plus and I for one would welcome them back from open arms tomorrow.

However, with so many South African players plying their trade in Japan, or in the URC where you get few high level intensity games, eventually you are going to suffer at the next level up and there was lots of evidence on display in this game which showed both South African forwards and backs struggled with defending the pace of the ball movement and with the speed of the New Zealand offensive ruck, not to mention being unable to gain any kind of dominance at set piece time.

You know when you have your best and biggest pack on the park and the opposition call a scrum from a penalty in front of the posts that they are not finding too much to be frightened of. And for reference to the above note on loose forwards, du Toit was well slow off the side here allowing Ardie and easy set up for the Mo’unga try.

Will Jordan of New Zealand makes a break against the Boks. (Photo by Phil Walter/Getty Images)

No doubt there some impact by the much-vaunted bomb squad, but in reality, that lasted a honeymooners 10 minutes between the 50th minute and the hour until the Blacks took the possession back and scored the next two tries. The introduction of the South African bench did seem to coincide with Monsieur Mathieu Raynal deciding that the laws of the breakdown applicable earlier could be discarded which ended up making much of the rest of the half something of a mess.

It’s time for the All Black coaching team to get some recognition for the variety of attack and solidity of defence we have seen, not only this year but since the enforced panel changes last year. The key improvements in the forwards have been well noted, but the elevated level of skill execution they have achieved in the backs while playing at genuine pace is worth a special mention.

There is no doubt this South African side and its coaching team will go away, recognise the weaknesses in pattern that were exposed, address the lack of depth and quality from numbers 6 through 10 in particular and be right back on point before the Rugby World Cup rolls around.

They are too good a side not too, however the look on the face of Rassie Eramus post-match tells me he knew exactly where the gaps were, but perhaps hoped they would not be so exposed.

A final word on the make-up of the New Zealand loose forwards and the oft lazily repeated, ‘we have never replaced Jerome Kaino’, which may well be true. But in reality, the biggest impact on the All Blacks since 2019 is that they have never replaced the work rate of Kieran Read. He was regularly in the mid-teens for hit-ups, tackles as well as being the primary lineout target and master at ruck time, this impact was swapped for the wider more exciting leg drive play of Ardie Savea.

With Shannon Frizell hitting all sorts of form the last two weeks, New Zealand have got that high impact high volume workload impact back. Frizell is an excellent lineout target, has a great combo with Sam Cane at ruck time while his carry and tackle numbers have been right up there with the previous New Zealand captain. We now need to see the constant impact plays to be coming from Savea that we saw from Kaino, and not so peripheral as we saw from him in the weekend.