John Drake: Bok tactics far superior

The close loss to the Springboks returned the All Blacks to reality after the blitzing of the Lions.

For the second consecutive year, the Boks proved that a simple game plan, sound set pieces and ferocious defence is still enough to win test matches.

Congratulations to Jake White for the tactics employed. Nothing much has changed from last year, except the South Africans seem to be growing depth in crucial positions.

White has introduced some great combinations at the key areas of tight five, loose forward and halfbacks. The style is simple and carried out with brutal efficiency.

We thought South Africa's midfield positional changes would bring an end to the rushing defence, but if anything the 2005 version is better than before. While it is apparently high risk and vulnerable to allowing overlaps out wide, the All Blacks were not able to manipulate the space required.

Dan Carter and Byron Kelleher were targeted, with deadly consequences for the latter.

Again White got it right, with Carter's decision-making not up to his usual standard and the pressure also affecting the usually cool Aaron Mauger.

Carter will learn from the experience. He has too much class and intelligence not to and probably learned more in the 80 minutes against the Springboks than the entire Lions series.

At lineout time, all the talk of numbers and illegal play came to nothing but Bakkies Botha and Victor Matfield managed to steal some important balls and strangely the All Blacks didn't seem to attack the Springbok lineout with the same passion shown against the Lions.

I thought the scrums were relatively even with both teams having their moments, although maybe the Boks won the ones that counted.

In the loose, South Africa were fast and physical. Special attention was made of Richie McCaw, and his ability at the breakdown to force turnovers was largely negated. This was achieved by means foul and fair - but I've got no problem here. You get away with what you can. Again, take a bow Mr White.

So the Springboks played a smart game and executed the coach's instructions to the letter.

The All Blacks looked like a team that had not played for a while - in the case of some key players not since the second Lions test on July 2.

Although South Africa started with fire and passion, it seemed to me that the All Blacks started as if they were about 60 minutes into a match. The ball was given too much air, we were throwing 50/50 passes and being too lateral in attack when we should have been setting the platform up front, kicking for territory and putting pressure on the Springboks with offensive defence.

The fightback from 13-nil down was wasted just before and after halftime when the Boks squeezed some vital points.

Graham Henry and co will need to address the inability to counter the rushing defence before the return game at Carisbrook.

I think the platform up front needs to be established with drive at lineout time and better dictating of the pace of the game early on.

Too often New Zealand were rushed by the abrasive Springboks and weren't allowed to dictate the speed of the game.

This led to over 20 handling errors and high turnover rate at the maul. Frankly, with such statistics, tests are hard to win.

Carter, Mauger and Leon MacDonald are all great tactical kickers but not much of this was shown.

If Carter is being targeted then Mauger and/or MacDonald should be used as first receiver and decision maker.

Despite all this, the All Blacks still got a valuable bonus point and were in the game right until the end. They created a lot of opportunities but the handling errors never allowed them to convert these into points.

In summary, the All Blacks played some average rugby but still could have won. The team and management will be better for the match and maybe the soft Lions did them no favours.

Henry has talked about accepting the odd loss but probably didn't think it would come so quickly.

So it's on to Sydney with Eddie Jones and the battered Wallabies desperate for a home win.

The lessons of the weekend should give the All Blacks the edge that was missing yesterday.

* John Drake is a former All Black test player.