The most hyped single rugby match of the year has now been and gone but the reality that this was never going to be a season just defined by Eden Park appeared to dawn quickly in the aftermath of an agonising Springbok defeat at the hands of the supremely motivated old foe.
The All Blacks won, and they will be pleased to have defended their most impregnable fortress against a challenge that started out looking like Santa Claus had arrived early this year in New Zealand but grew incrementally more formidable towards the end. But their mission is not complete - they need to win both home Castle Lager Rugby Championship games against South Africa if they want to properly avenge what happened to them in this country last year.
And after winning by just seven points, and really being up against it at the death, they will know that the mission in Wellington will be even harder than it was in Auckland. For the Boks appeared to take a while getting used to being back in New Zealand this past weekend.
Maybe what we forgot about in the buildup was that since the end of the Super Rugby era South African players have lost the familiarity with New Zealand that they once had. While no Boks of any post-isolation era had ever won in the national jersey at Eden Park, they would all have been used to playing there for their franchises. And many would have experienced winning there against the Blues. It was always Christchurch, the home of the Crusaders, and not Auckland, that was seen as the perennial bridge too far.
SIMILARITY TO MOUNT SMART TWO YEARS AGO
When the game started this past weekend it was the beginning for only the second match that the Boks have played on New Zealand soil since 2019, which was when South Africa’s Super Rugby participation also happened to end. And you could say exactly the same thing happened back then at Mt Smart Stadium in a different suburb of Auckland as did at Eden Park - the Boks were hit early by the opposition intensity and then couldn’t make up the ground lost.
Going 14-0 down so early, particularly on a wet day like it was, was the killer blow. Those soft moments cost the Boks, and they actually did well to come back like they did. Which is another thing the Kiwis should have in their minds as they approach the return game at Sky Stadium on Saturday - the Boks could not have been more generous than they were at Eden Park and yet the All Blacks were the team hanging on in the end and looking out on their feet on the final whistle.
The hosts have work to do before the weekend if they hope to complete their mission and it appears the visitors have already decided what needs to be done for them to turn around the Auckland result. The Bok team will be announced on Monday this week, and that is early even for Rassie Erasmus. Clearly there’s a lot of clarity of thought in the Bok camp for that to be the case.
LACKING THE OLD SELF-BELIEF
From a South African viewpoint let’s hope that is the case, for what should have become crystal clear during the Auckland game was that the Boks lack much of the self-belief, and you can call it mental strength if you like, that had made winning such a habit, and the winning of big moments such a habit, before the defeat to Australia at Emirates Airlines Park three weeks ago.
It is true that there had been a similar wakeup call a month or so before that when Italy embarrassed the Boks in the second half at Loftus, but it is starting to look like what happened in Johannesburg was more than just a wakeup call. It was a game changer when it came to the confidence and assurance of both the Bok coach and his players.
What Erasmus said before the game about the team that wins being the one that wins the big moments did prove prescient, but it was in the opposite way to what most anticipated. It was the All Blacks who won the big moments, while the Boks, so strong in clutch moments on their way to two World Cup titles and last year’s Championship triumph, lost them.
The areas that need improving would have been discussed at length by pundits across many different platforms since Saturday - the lineout woes are being repeated too often for it to be regarded as an aberration and the coaching of that phase does require looking at, perhaps defence too, and hopefully changes will be made to the pack that will prevent a continued repetition of the problems at the breakdown.
Those who blamed scrumhalf Grant Williams for his apparent failure to bring control at the base are off beam - the scrumhalf just wasn’t given enough protection. And it wasn’t the first time either, for it happened against Australia.
REASON TO FEEL HOPEFUL
One source of hope for Wellington is that when the reserves came on and the game drew on so the Bok forwards became more dominant, so Cobus Reinach didn’t have quite the same mess to deal with as Williams did. That is something the Boks will no doubt have internalised as they moved from New Zealand’s largest city to the nation’s capital for their next match.
And make no mistake, while it would be wrong to celebrate a narrow defeat, for that would be a step back in time to a different era when the Boks were the chasers and the All Blacks the leaders, there is reason for hope. And plenty of reason to think the Boks can also still retain the Championship, for Argentina have given away their home ground advantage for the final game of the competition.
With this being one of the most exciting ever Championship seasons, winning their three remaining games could well be enough for the Boks to move to the top of the log. But to do that they need to get their heads right, find a way to re-establish the assurance that they had before the Johannesburg nightmare.
Their conquerors that day, the Australians, are starting to look like a good dark horse bet to win the Championship because they appear to have grabbed hold of what the Boks had before - a way to find a win when all seems lost. They did it in Johannesburg and they did it again in fighting back from a 14 point deficit to win five minutes after the hooter against the Los Pumas in Townsville at the weekend.
The way the Aussies are going they can certainly knock over the All Blacks in one of the Bledisloe Cup fixtures, but at the same time they are far from perfect too. Anything can happen in the remaining three matches, but one thing is clear for the Boks - they need to rediscover the point of difference they once enjoyed over their opponents in the mentality game.
Weekend Castle Lager Rugby Championship results
Australia 28 Argentina 24
New Zealand 24 South Africa 17