After five losses from their last six tests, including three defeats in a row, and with unwanted records mounting, the All Blacks summoned their brilliant best to snap their funk and bring the world champions down to earth. Video / Sky Sport
OPINION:
WINNER: It should still be Scott Robertson
Ian Foster's last stand as All Blacks boss or the portent of a shiny new era polished to perfection by a coach who had been a dead man walking?
Rugby's latest saga, the link between the game itself and off-field drama, iswhat sport is all about, not that dear old rugby realises this.
The sepia tones of ancient rugby photos still linger when you look at rugby's modern administrators, and how the game sees itself, yet the drama is bursting through in HD colour. You've got to love it.
New Zealand Rugby has backed itself into a corner, creating a compelling soap opera to make any script writer proud as an underwhelming coach clings to his post in charge of the world's most famous rugby team, while a crowd favourite and potential saviour waits in the wings.
In the latest episode, a tide of sentiment has apparently flowed Foster's way after the victory at Ellis Park, the doubters and Scott Robertson backers having been turned into a nasty, ill-informed mob…as the story in some quarters goes.
I suspect the majority still want Robertson to take over though, and count me in with that lot, although - back in 2019 - I believed the Japan-contracted combo of Jamie Joseph and Tony Brown was the best choice to succeed Steve Hansen.
Scott Robertson is the crowd favourite waiting in the wings. Photo / Photosport
If New Zealand Rugby was - as inferred last week - set to replace Foster, they should stay strong, see the Ellis Park game for what it was, and give Robertson the chance to enact a desperately needed overhaul while re-energising the public.
Yes, Foster and the All Blacks have to be applauded for holding their nerve, spotting that the Springboks had left the door ajar, and skipping on through.
But a lot of the parts were still misfiring, and the overall quality of the test was not the best.
A slightly improved All Blacks outfit was invited to paper over the cracks by a Springboks team whose performance was so unbelievably poor that you started to wonder if both teams needed coaching changes.
The impressive blanket thrown over the All Blacks at Mbombela turned into a bundle of wiggly threads in Johannesburg, the players perhaps confused by their coach's forward selections.
The Springboks did this against Wales, mucking about and losing the second test, and Jacques Nienaber's long World Cup game suddenly looked too clever for its own good.
Even given the selection gambles, it was hard to work out just where the Springboks' aggressive, oppressive defence had gone to.
But the magnificent battle of Ellis Park - what a fabulous stadium that is - also fits the pattern of elite world rugby, and most importantly World Cup tournaments.
Teams who get up one week crash the next, as we have seen this year. As the All Blacks and Ireland headed towards a third test decider, there were three other high-profile series in the same state.
The great news for the All Blacks is that they may have unearthed promising front rowers, the key area where they have fallen behind over the past decade.
Power hooker Samisoni Taukei'aho is delivering, and three young props stood tall against the confused Boks.
As for Ian Foster, well done, for staying strong. Seriously.
Ian Foster during the All Blacks' victory at Ellis Park. Photo / Photosport
The pressure in these situations must be immense. Then again it always is when you are in charge of the All Blacks.
But in deciding who should coach them from here on, there are five years, even more, of evidence pointing strongly one way with only the excitement of the Ellis Park moment waving vaguely in the other.
WINNER: Test rugby
Said it before, and will say it again. Rugby works magnificently on the biggest stages, in front of massive crowds. All those annoying stoppages etc. in everyday rugby become moments of epic drama when so much is at stake.
I still love test rugby, yet have reached a point where I can barely stand it anywhere else.
WINNER: Sam Whitelock (rather than Rieko Ioane)
There were two great shocks to wake up to on Sunday morning - Brentford smashing Manchester United 4-0 in the English Premier League, and All Black centre Rieko Ioane being named man of the match at Ellis Park.
Once-mighty United have started the season like they are relegation material.
Back to rugby, a game which is a mystery wrapped up in a riddle as the old saying goes.
It is a helter-skelter team pursuit of such diverse and hard-to-define individual contributions that singling out players is often an exercise in missing the point. We can all see it in so many different ways.
But if there was some way of bottling influence, then the label would scream Whitelock.
The magnificent Crusader is the heart of the All Black operation.
Sam Whitelock wins a lineout. Photo / Photosport
Brodie Retallick has been so good - he's the best test lock in the world over the past 50 years - that Whitelock may not have got his dues, incredibly.
How his body has held up to the battering for so long is a mystery in itself.
Maybe the best player on Ellis Park was the mercurial Springboks back Lukhanyo Am. He was certainly the most amazing to watch. What a footballer.
But under the circumstances, Whitelock would have been my man of the match.
LOSER: Hair pulling
It cropped up in the Commonwealth Games rugby. Now an incident has gone unpunished as Spurs scored a goal against Chelsea in the English Premier League. Sports people need to cut it out.
LOSERS: Sprinters
Speedsters Eddie Osei-Nketia and Tiaan Whelpton have continued the complaints that sprinters are not being treated fairly, and New Zealand's best sporting interests are not being looked after by national selection policies and decisions.
They are spot on.
We have a golden chance to take this core part of athletics forward and create new traditions and excitement.
Yet the selectors seem to go out of their way to hold the development of sprinting back by applying selection criteria which isn't appropriate in a discipline of hair-trigger variables.
It was brilliant to see Zoe Hobbs in the Commonwealth Games final. The Games honchos need to take a further leap of faith.
WINNER: The English Premier League
Manchester United's Cristiano Ronaldo reacts during his team's 4-0 loss to Brentford. Photo / AP
An exhilarating and fascinating start to the season. The action, the controversy, the skill, the crowds, the analysis, (most of) the commentary…
The EPL grows and grows - it is the greatest regular sports show on earth, and always will be.
LOSER: The NRL
Rugby league is too formulaic to remain fascinating over such a long season. The excitement of the early rounds turns to boredom.
WINNER/LOSER: Cricket
Trent Boult's successful bid for freedom from his NZ Cricket contract has created a few waves around the cricket world.
It is seen, if I read it right, as a watershed moment, as the T20 leagues sweep over a lot of test cricket and the 50-over game.
There are even predictions that test cricket will soon boil down to contests between only England, Australia and India as commercial interests take more control.
I find T20 cricket to be a complete abomination, but if the younger generations are drawn to it, then it may indeed be the way to go.
And to be fair, most of us don't have time to wade through the fascinating nuances and drama of the five-day game anymore.
The battle of the formats is a real conundrum for cricket, and one in which the world body is no longer in control of the game's destiny.
