It was mighty close in the end as the Springboks went into all-out attack mode at the death, but the All Blacks completed their mission by defending their Eden Park fortress with a hard-fought 24-17 Castle Lager Rugby Championship win over the world champions.
As was the case at another stadium in Auckland, Mount Smart, two years ago, the New Zealanders produced their most compelling passage of rugby in the opening 20 minutes. It was then that they capitalised on South African soft moments to score two tries that set the Boks into catch-up mode.
Whether it was that early deficit that needed to be made up that prompted the Boks to conspire against themselves, only the team will know, although it is true that their tendency to give away points or opportunities with soft moments started right from the off.
The game was just over two minutes old when a Beauden Barrett cross kick created that first soft moment, with Willie le Roux slipping as All Black wing Emoni Narawa gathered the ball. The No. 14 suddenly had no one in front of him as he stepped over the prone Le Roux and the South African cover wasn’t quick enough to get across to prevent the score.
That was the first soft moment. The second came when referee Karl Dickson arguably called advantage over too quickly when the Boks seized a ball knocked on and kicked it upfield. Beauden Barrett then kicked a brilliant 50/22, and from the lineout, the All Blacks scored their second try to Will Jordan.
There were potentially two refereeing errors there - first, the quick end to advantage, and second, it did appear that the All Blacks were offside in the lineout. The bottom line, though, was that the Bok kick that Barrett fielded was a poor one, and that pretty much summed up the Bok day. Make no mistake, they did a lot of things very poorly.
KIWIS BLUNTED BOK STRENGTHS
The reasons the Boks struggled to get into the game early on was because the All Blacks took away so many of the usual anticipated strengths. The scrum was dominant most of the game, but the Kiwis weren’t penalised for collapsing the scrums, and it was a magnificent scrum that brought the Boks back into it much later in the game.
But the lineouts weren’t up to their usual standard, far from it, and it isn’t the first time this international season we have had to say that. Perhaps instead of sitting in the Supersport studio, Victor Matfield should be seconded to the management team and flying to New Zealand to help sort out the Bok lineout, which has become shambolic and played a big part in costing the visitors their chance of making history by breaking their Eden Park hoodoo.
It wasn’t so much that the Kiwis won many balls against the throw, just the complete lack of control the Boks had in that phase. And when the forwards weren’t messing it up themselves, scrumhalf Grant Williams knocked the ball on. Frequently, that was when the Boks had played themselves into strong attacking positions in the New Zealand 22.
RASSIE’S WORDS PROVED PRESCIENT
The words of Bok coach Rassie Erasmus pre-match proved prescient - to win the game, the Boks had to win the big moments. They did not do that, and perhaps the entire match would have run a completely different course had it not been for the way the Boks kept making mistakes in the All Black 22 in the five minutes before halftime, when they desperately needed a try to put the game on a more even keel at the break.
Had the Boks scored then and trailed just by four points at the break, as Handre Pollard had by then put the first Bok points on the board through a penalty kick, the South Africans would arguably have had the momentum, given how they were starting to win the possession and territory battle and applying slow poison in the scrums.
The All Blacks did defend really well in that period, and they were also on point with how they had planned for some of the Bok ploys. Such as when the South Africans tried their trick play maul set up, and the Kiwis were ready for it. That was in a strong attacking position, and another of many opportunities lost.
Later in the game, as the Boks fought back through tries from Malcolm Marx and then Cobus Reinach five minutes from time, that malady became particularly apparent. The Boks, with 17 minutes to go, were back in the game and still had potential to win the game when Marx scored after the massive scrum that turned over All Black possession 10 metres from their line.
But then, and not for the first time in the game, there was a penalty for obstruction. So from the restart, the All Blacks were able to set up a lineout in the Bok 22, and from that position, they applied the pressure that saw another penalty awarded and Kwagga Smith yellow carded. The try that came from that to re-establish the All Blacks’ two-try buffer was almost inevitable.
SAVEA PLAYED BIG ROLE IN HIS 100TH
Full marks to the Boks for the way they never gave up, and when Reinach went over, there was a chance they would at least draw the game. But off the final move of the game, as the Boks built up some minutes after the hooter, Ardie Savea turned over Bok possession.
That was it, game set and match, and Savea ended his 100th appearance for his country in fine style. The Boks have lots to rue. They definitely conspired against themselves, but in the end, it was New Zealand’s day and they have good reason to celebrate as they break a four-match losing sequence and continue their winning sequence at Eden Park that dates back to 1994 by another game. It now stands at 51 games, and to be fair, even if the Boks did score at the end, that unbeaten sequence would still have been extended as the best the Boks could get was a draw.
On the day, they never deserved more than that. They were just too sloppy.
SCORES
New Zealand 24 - Tries: Emoni Narawa, Will Jordan and Quinn Tupaea; Conversions: Jordie Barrett 2 and Damian McKenzie; Penalty: Damian McKenzie.
South Africa 17 - Tries: Malcolm Marx and Cobus Reinach; Conversions: Handre Pollard and Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu; Penalty: Handre Pollard