GROOT Review: Boks 21 – All Blacks 26

In a bruising encounter at the ABSA Stadium in Durban on Saturday, the All Blacks held their composure to come from behind and beat the Springboks 26-21.

The game was ten minutes too long for the home side as the Kiwis came back to score two converted tries in the final period to steal victory from a visibly shattered Bok side.

For a blow by blow account of the game, see our live scoreboard.

The key talking points of the test match were the following:

The Boks annihilated in the scrum
The All Blacks destroyed the Springbok scrum. Gary Botha confirmed that he is not in the same league as John Smit when it comes to scrummaging. Bismarck du Plessis would’ve been an effective early replacement, and the mind boggles that the Bok forward coaches couldn’t see this coming (from as long ago as last Monday when Oliver was named to the All Black side). They couldn’t even make the right call once the All Blacks started dominating. Once again we saw evidence of the superior knowledge and preparation by the Bok forwards coach Gert Smal and his ‘assistant’ Balie Swart. Not.

The Boks dominate the lineouts, but the ABs cleverly turn the tables
The Boks dominated the lineouts, both on their own ball and on the opposition’s throw ins. New Zealand lost five of their own throws, but the All Blacks had the presence of mind to cleverly change tactics later on to negate the Bok advantage by relying on quick, short lineouts.

Schalk a lone ranger in the loose
The magnificent Schalk Burger delivered a superb performance of tackling and ball-carrying in one of his best games in the Green and Gold. But he was a man operating alone. Unlike the All Black loose trio who were all firing – McCaw cleaning up on the deck with So’oialo and Collins putting in the hard ball-carrying yards and big defensive hits.

Springbok inexperience at the end
In the final quarter, when it really counted, some of the young guns in the Bok side showed their inexperience. Frans Steyn, Pedrie Wannenburg and JP Pietersen were the main culprits.

Pedrie Wannenburg’s yellow card
He was sinbinned for killing the ball barely minutes after he came on as a replacement for Bob Skinstad.

Frans Steyn replacing Butch James
The departure of Butch James with a hamstring injury, and the addition of Frans Steyn at flyhalf was a major turning point. Steyn had a shocker, conceding a 5 metre scrum with his first touch, and making two or three other errors. The communication and organization between Pienaar and Steyn (two of the least experienced players in the side) was terrible.

The old fatigue excuse
Captain Victor Matfield was under no illusions as to where the game was won or lost, bemoaning the fatigue evident throughout much of his team towards the end of the match.

Poor captaincy from Matfield
Matfield went missing for most of the game, only popping up to do his work in the lineouts. His leadership was almost non-existent and this fact was never more evident than in the final quarter where the game was lost through inexperience and lack of composure.

All Blacks bench makes a big impact
The All Blacks substitutes played well with replacement hooker Keven Mealamu having his usual strong runs. Leon MacDonald and Luke McAlister had a big impact in the last 20 minutes by really picking up the pace.

All Blacks’ tactical maturity
The All Blacks carried out their gameplan to perfection by absorbing early pressure, then ruthlessly increasing the pace later on to leave the Boks out on their feet and vulnerable to the Kiwi’s dangerous wide attack.

Springbok ball carriers isolated
The Bok ball carriers were often isolated, leaving McCaw to perform his typical turnover heroics.

Early pressure not converted into points
The Boks, as against Australia last week, failed to make their territorial dominance count with numerous handling errors, poor decision making and solid defence scuppering their attempts at translating possession into points.

Bok backline too flat
When the Boks passed the ball out wide the backs were standing too flat to pose any real threat to the All Black defensive line.

Carter off colour
Carter had a very quiet game and was uncharacteristically poor in his kicks for posts. But for the All Blacks to win despite Carter’s poor showing is worrying.

This was what the players and captains had to say after the game:

Graham Henry was pleased with the character and pride displayed by his team to come back and win it at the death.

“The All Blacks haven’t played a Test match of that intensity probably since last year’s Tri-Nations. It’s great to get back to that quality of rugby again. I think both teams found it difficult to adjust to the intensity to start with, and our fellows got better as the game went on, especially in the last 20 which is a sign of pride in the group, and of backbone, and I think the conditioning showed today with our guys coming through at the end, which was a pleasing aspect, although we have a lot of work to do still.

“But the players showed great character in never giving up. Our bench men made the difference when they came on as they brought a new dimension to the game when it really counted”

Richie McCaw talked about the step up in intensity of the match compared to the All Blacks’ warmup games.

“It was definitely a step up to what we have been playing for a long time, we haven’t played a game at that sort of pace and physicality for a while. Last week the Boks showed they had a huge physical presence, and they threw it at us, but we stuck at it, and we knew the chances would come, despite their try just before half time.

“But we realised that if we could just up the tempo, they might run out of legs, and we might get the opportunities. In the first twenty minutes we struggled to do much with the ball we got, we kept getting tackled behind the gain line and struggled to make any yardage. Eventually we got ourselves going, but we have to get that going right from the start because there will be some days where we don’t get out of jail. Today we did well to put the pressure on and get the points we needed, but sometimes you just can’t do that.”

Jake White blamed fatigue for the Boks being found wanting at the end.

“We played well in the first half, and we held up a couple of good positions on the line there, and we got a nice score just before half time where I thought momentum could have gone in our favour. But from then on… you know, all credit to the All Blacks, they never gave up they kept coming at us and there is no doubt we were found wanting at the end.

“Any loss is a blow, but we have had six weekends in a row where we have played semifinals, finals or Test matches. Anybody watching that game could tell in the last 20 minutes that we have been playing Test intensity matches for seven weeks in succession. You could see a complete difference in the way they lifted their game when their replacements came on.”

“There were a couple of defining moments, I haven’t seen the video yet, but I felt there were a couple of things that didn’t go our way. There was the pass on the other side of the field (shortly before Richie McCaw’s try) where I wasn’t sure if that ball went forward, there was the catch by JP (Pietersen), where I am not quite sure if the All Black player wasn’t in front of the ball when he tackled JP so… that could have been a penalty to us instead of a 70-yard try down the other end of the field. But it happens. You have to live with it, and it is little things like that, especially in Springbok-All Black Test matches that make a difference.

“It wasn’t a gamble at all putting Frans at flyhalf. Butch had a sore hammie, and Frans was the guy who was back up to Butch. It was a good opportunity for some new guys to play against the All Blacks. It wasn’t the result we wanted, but it makes them senior players, and the more of those we have, the more experienced guys we have.

“It’s a learning curve for them because they need to be in that situation and be able to win, and that is one of the positives we can take from this Test, that they have this experience behind them.
 
“It was a different ball game as we ran out of steam. In regard to this match I rather believe we lost it rather than to say we were taken apart and beaten. And that is something to take back to the drawing board.

“In many regards it was a difficult match that turned on a couple of defining moments. But the fact of the matter is that one should win your home games if you want to lift the Tri-Nations trophy. But we did get a bonus point so we will be hoping that the Aussies will do us a favour and halt them next week.

“You can put things into a memory bank. Last week in the dressing room we were on a high. But this week it is the opposite way around. There are some very long faces. But it is part of the learning experience, especially for the younger inexperienced members of the side who are still learning their way in international rugby in the build up to France.

“They caught us once or twice. They were very clever. We’ve got 10 weeks to the World Cup and we know what we have to work on. We meet them again in four weeks in Christchurch and hopefully we’ll meet them again in Paris.”

Victor Matfield spoke of the way the All Blacks increased the tempo of the game to bury the Boks.

“We had them under good pressure in the first half, and I think we did very well to match the tempo of their game. In the second half they caught us with their faster tempo and quick throws, and that’s where we lost it a little bit, we couldn’t stay with them.”

Score details:

Final Score: New Zealand All Blacks 26 – 21 South African Springboks

New Zealand:
Tries: Richie McCaw, Joe Rokocoko.
Conversions: Daniel Carter (2).
Penalties: Carter (3).
Drop goal: Aaron Mauger.

South Africa:
Tries: Schalk Burger, Butch James.
Conversion: Percy Montgomery.
Penalties: Montgomery (2), Ruan Pienaar.

Official Man of the Match: Rodney So’oialo.

Tri Nations table 23 June 2007:

01 – Springboks:  Played 2 Won 1 Lost 1 Bonus 1 Total 5
02 – All Blacks:  Played 1 Won 1 Lost 0 Bonus 0 Total 4
03 – Wallabies: Played 1 Won 0 Lost 1 Bonus 1 Total 1

Some match stats:

Penalties conceded: 11: SA – 7 [5 ruck\tackle, 1 offside, 1 discipline], NZ – 4 [3 ruck\tackle, 1 discipline]

Gaining possession: 50: SA – 28 [12 lineouts, 11 scrums, 1 freekick, 5 dropouts], NZ – 22 [18 lineouts, 3 scrums, 1 freekick]

Stoppages: 68

Tackles\mauls\rucks: 153

Kicks: 81 (SA 41, NZ 40)

Advantages played: 20

Injury stoppages: 4

Replacements: 9

Tries: 4 (SA 2, NZ 2)