Dejected All Black players after losing the match during the New Zealand All Blacks v South Africa Springboks rugby union match at Mbombela Stadium. Photo / Photosport.co.nz
Dejected All Black players after losing the match during the New Zealand All Blacks v South Africa Springboks rugby union match at Mbombela Stadium. Photo / Photosport.co.nz
Dominant, emphatic, claustrophobic and clinical. The Springboks have seldom, if ever, dominated an All Black side so comprehensively. Despite a 26-10 final scoreline, the tourists were lucky it was not a lot worse.
New Zealand hardly had any ball, they lost the aerial battle, they were destroyed on the ground and smothered when they did try to launch attacks.
All Blacks coach Ian Foster's time in charge is now surely measured in hours, not days as his side slumped to a third consecutive defeat.
The Boks' 16-point margin was the biggest in the professional era between the sides and the second biggest in history.
The All Blacks will limp to Johannesburg for the second Test at Ellis Park next week, but they won't be relishing the challenge if the outcome and performance at Mbombela was anything to go by. If the Boks were more accurate on attack, they could have scored 40 points or more.
A dominant Springbok outfit piled more misery on New Zealand, recording their biggest win over the All Blacks since 1928 💪
The utter domination of the South Africans over the former No 1 team in the world begs the question of why it took so long.
The Kiwis are indeed a team in disarray, and having been completely smothered by the Springboks, it is hard to see them recovering at Ellis Park next week in the return match of the Rugby Championship.
Dejected All Black players after losing the match during the New Zealand All Blacks v South Africa Springboks rugby union match at Mbombela Stadium. Photo / Photosport.co.nz
'Clueless All Blacks'
SArugbymag.co.za
It was as one-sided a performance as the scoreline suggests with the Springboks dominating the All Blacks to force the visitors backwards with a number of physical hits, while claiming the front foot at the set piece.
The visitors simply did not help themselves with a clueless tactical performance as they played into the Springboks' hands by desperately trying to circumvent the rush defence and made an unusually high number of avoidable errors.
Most dominant performance by the Boks against the All Blacks in the Erasmus / Nienaber era. NZ had no answer - totally and comprehensively outplayed.
Dejected All Black players after losing the match during the New Zealand All Blacks v South Africa Springboks rugby union match at Mbombela Stadium. Photo / Photosport.co.nz
'Confidence has been shattered'
By Gregor Paul, NZ Herald
If Ireland cracked the All Blacks, South Africa certainly broke them and any hope, however forlorn, that a recovery is possible under this coaching regime, has surely gone.
It's time to ring Razor, tell him to be waiting with his hand-picked assistants and for him and Jason Ryan to get on with rebuilding a legacy that is in danger of being horribly tainted if there is not definitive action taken.
There is nothing now that can happen to convince anyone in New Zealand – anyone who knows the game – that the All Blacks are going to miraculously improve without a total and brutal clean-out and reset.
Confidence has been shattered, all hope lost and it would be madness for New Zealand Rugby to do anything other than get out the cheque-book, pay off the termination fees and usher in a new era.
'All Blacks barely fired a shot'
By Liam Napier, NZ Herald
"In their defining hour, their day of reckoning, the All Blacks barely fired a shot.
"Mbombela Stadium exploded at the seams with 45,000 screaming South Africans forming a sea of green; a piercing atmosphere. The locals sure had plenty to shout about, too.
"In that white hot caldron, among swarming Springboks, on their first venture to South Africa in four years, the All Blacks failed to cope with the relentless aerial and physical assault on their senses.
"It wasn't the All Blacks were intimidated. It wasn't they were caught off guard, either. The Boks stuck to their unimaginative kick-heavy, forward-dominated blueprint and executed it to perfection. The All Blacks knew it was coming – and still had few answers."
Scott Robertson has resisted any temptation to rotate his side for the All Blacks’ year-ending test against Italy, naming as strong a side as possible for Sunday’s clash.
