Will Jordan of New Zealand during the Rugby Championship test match, All Blacks versus Springboks at Mt Smart Stadium In Auckland on Saturday July 15. Photo by Alan Lee / Photosport
Will Jordan of New Zealand during the Rugby Championship test match, All Blacks versus Springboks at Mt Smart Stadium In Auckland on Saturday July 15. Photo by Alan Lee / Photosport
How the world media responded to the All Blacks’ 35-20 win over South Africa at Mt Smart Stadium last night.
‘Imperfect All Blacks way too good’
By Stephen Jones, The Times
It was imperfect by some of their own standards, but way too good for the world champions. It was not really that New Zealand laid down a marker, but just a strong reminder that they are around and contenders.
Surely it should be relatively easy to react when an opposing team play exactly how you knew they would. There were no New Zealand secrets at Mount Smart Stadium, Auckland, nothing from up their sleeves.
The South Africa planners knew that the All Blacks would be running hard from the back, keeping the ball in hand through their back row and midfield, recycling like lightning, kicking rarely and, then, not for touch — the Springbok lineout was to be feared.
That is exactly what transpired and yet the Springboks could do nothing about it. Forewarned was to be unarmed. They were 17-0 down before they had blinked, in what was a sublime phase of play or a total embarrassment, depending on whether you were dressed in black, or green. And although after that New Zealand subsided as well, there was no way back for South Africa.
The brilliance, the precision, the pace and the good decision-making of the All Blacks in scoring two dazzling early tries was marked — so good that South Africa could have read their opponents’ playbook and still done nothing about it.
The Kiwis were ruthless on attack and the ease with which they scored their four tries has doused any euphoria left from the Boks’ rout of the Wallabies in Pretoria.
Congrats to the All Blacks they were unstoppable in those 1st 20min. We certainly made some errors as a coaching team! Thanks for all the support in good and bad times we really appreciate it!🇿🇦
The Springboks were their own worst enemies, failing to start with any sort of intensity, which was ruthlessly punished by the All Blacks, who opened up a 17-point lead in the first quarter of the contest.
From there, the Boks were caught playing catch-up and while the bench made a positive impact, cutting the deficit in the second half, it proved too big a mountain to climb as the All Blacks finished in style with two late tries.
“It’s difficult, a lot of things stuck for them in the first 20 minutes,” said Steven Kitshoff after the match. “A couple of offloads and the way they played, it felt like it stuck and we were just chasing ghosts for 20 minutes.
“I think when we make dominant tackles and get them on the ground, there are opportunities for us to realign our defensive system and actually start putting linespeed and tackle pressure back on to them.
“I just felt that too many of their offloads stuck, the way they just moved the ball – everything stuck for them – and they just played an incredible opening passage of the game and scored a couple of good tries.”
Properly beaten today but pretty happy with the fight back,I know refs don’t dig us but we got no 50/50’s today which is worrying,the phantom player not rolling away when Kwagga stole the ball,the scrum pens.Boks are gonna have to be in perfect form every weekend to overcome this
They eventually managed to add some respectability via the bomb squad appearing early in the second half, but at the end of the game they were solidly beaten, and their aura as a great forward side was dented somewhat by a masterful All Black performance.
The first 20 minutes was a horror show of note - the Boks couldn’t do anything right, had no ball and missed 17 tackles as the complete opposite happened for the All Blacks. Every ball stuck for them and every contestable kick resulted in a positive outcome.
The Boks will point to the fact that they eventually lost by 15 points - after conceding 17 early on - and while it is true that the damage was done there, it was precisely the start that raises concerns ahead of the Rugby World Cup.
After a tumultuous 2022 where the national team slumped into a deep dark funk, the All Blacks have officially pulled back the curtains to shine a light on their revival.
Last week’s dominant performance against the Pumas in Mendoza hinted the All Blacks were a force again.
Who better to confirm those suspicions than the Springboks?
The Rugby Championship title will mean little by the end of this year but the All Blacks place one hand on that trophy with a compelling victory over the world champions at Mt Smart Stadium.
This was an impressive statement from the All Blacks that suggested they have all the tools and tactical nous to challenge for this year’s World Cup.
Richie Mo’unga of New Zealand celebrates his try with team mates during the All Blacks versus South Africa Springboks world championship clash at Mt Smart Stadium, Auckland. Photo / Alan Lee / Photosport
They wouldn’t say they dusted off the Boks without so much as breaking a sweat, but bar a wobbly patch in the first quarter of the second half, the All Blacks didn’t appear to have too much trouble in getting the job done.
The scoreline was every bit as comprehensive as it seemed and if the margin of victory had been yet higher, that wouldn’t have been an unfair reflection of how in control the All Blacks were.
South Africa really didn’t do much to trouble them. The visitors’ vaunted physicality did rise a level or two early in the second half when they brought the bomb squad on, and the rolling maul try they scored will irk the forwards.
But other than that, the Boks came with their usual confrontational mindset and thought that would be enough.
It was nowhere near enough and the All Blacks didn’t have too much trouble coping with the sheer enormity of the Boks.
