Chris Rattue: ABs reach nadir in Hamilton

All Blacks captain Richie McCaw lets his frustrations get the better of him during play on Saturday night. Photo / Getty Images

South Africa are more than worthy Tri-Nations champions while the All Blacks have become embarrassing chumps.

The Graham Henry era is in serious trouble, again, and even rugby's hopeless romantics Wales, under Warren Gatland, must be licking their lips in anticipation of a historic victory later this year.

The always faulty, disingenuous theory that losing World Cup coaches, men who ruined their own team in 2007, would somehow be better for the experience was given humiliating last rites in Hamilton on Saturday night. So much for the NZRU's claim that this trio is the dream team.

The rugby pundits were intent on picking on Springboks captain John Smit leading up to this test, but there are far more important targets for New Zealand much closer to home.

Smit was inspirational - including a wonderful hit on Brad Thorn - although it is probably inevitable that his tight head scrummaging will remain erratic, that he will tire at times having returned to the position late in his career.

Smit will go down as a colossus of world rugby, in the pantheon with the likes of Martin Johnson and John Eales, but the All Blacks are simply going down.

Man for man, this is the worst All Black side of the professional era, but the sum total is even worse than the parts thanks to theory-heavy coaching and the odd diabolical selection.

Two men kept the All Blacks in the hunt in Hamilton and for once they weren't Dan Carter, who was out of sorts, and the lion-hearted Richie McCaw.

Referee Nigel Owens and touch judge Wayne Barnes combined to bolster the New Zealand scoreline with two and perhaps three crazy penalty rulings, from which Carter goaled, and a wonky decision which helped turn what should have been an attacking Springbok lineout into a Sitiveni Sivivatu try.

This handicapping of the Springboks started from their opening kickoff reception when Owens awarded the All Blacks a ridiculous penalty. He was at it again with a bizarre kick-chase offside call, and probably got a ruck penalty wrong as well although that is par for the course in rugby.

Barnes, whose World Cup quarter-final performance was used by Henry as the crucial evidence to keep his job, came to the All Black coach's aid again, gifting Joe Rokocoko a get-out-of-jail card which led to the Sivivatu try.

Maybe mad Peter de Villiers had a point when he claimed in his excitable manner that the world's referees have it in for the Boks, although it's hard to fathom why.

The All Blacks were largely pathetic in Hamilton, and the scoreline did not do justice to the Springboks' superiority.

As for the theory that the All Blacks are the champions of running rugby, valiantly trying to slay the evil forces of South African boot-ality - what nonsense.

A sequence of dreadful All Black performances this season reached a nadir of sorts in Hamilton, where helter-skelter desperation should not be confused with any validity to the running rugby claims.

In reality, the fruitless All Black fightback dipped into the NRL kicking playbook as Carter sent crossfield bombs to forwards on the far touchlines to outflank the circling Springboks defence.

It also raised reminders of the English rugby side which won the World Cup in 2003. Clive Woodward's team liked to stretch opposing defences from touchline to touchline in this way, partly to find more gaps for their carthorses in the midfield.

Carter's ploy found success for a McCaw try, but the truth about these All Blacks was exposed in the final seconds when Carter ignored green pastures to hoof the ball over Isaac Ross and the fence.

With South Africa's short-line umbrella defence in disarray, a side with alert runners and clever ball players - and one supposedly holding a candle for running rugby - would have constructed a winning try without having to resort to the lower percentage play of booting it to the corner.

The most obvious of the All Black errors though occurred in the selection room. There was never a future, let alone a present, in the Stephen Donald/Ma'a Nonu centre combination, so why even try it?

You could only throw up the hands in horror when it was announced last week that Wayne Smith had parked Donald at second five-eighths. This noble but limited footballer was thrown to the wolves in front of his home crowd, as sad a sight as you might see in test rugby.

Donald is barely equipped to play first five-eighths at this level, and never even plays in the No 12 jersey. As has been noted by just about every observer of this test, his confusing interchange role with Carter undermined the great No 10's authority.

Donald runs at the defensive line in the manner of a startled horse, and his presence has the effect of sending panic throughout the stables. He should never wear the black jersey again, because he simply isn't good enough.

Outside him, Ma'a Nonu dropped the ball four times in a display that should also end his test days.

Throughout his career, Nonu has had a major problem in retaining possession. Saturday was the night for him to stand up and be counted as a senior man in a struggling side.

It is six seasons since he first played for the test team 41 games ago. Yet Nonu still plays as the enfant terrible - if he can't hold on to the ball this deep into his career, he never will.

Donald and Nonu were always the centre pairing from hell, and backs coach Smith should have known that before he sent them out against the veteran Springbok combination.

Smith had other far better options, including the tough Mils Muliaina and talented Isaia Toeava, but instead he inflicted yet more muddled thinking on his team and what is becoming a long-suffering public.

It seems pointless calling for changes to the All Black selection panel, because the troubled trio and their masters are in this together, as thick as thieves.

The NZRU needs to put a clever cat among these pigeons though, because it just isn't working. As to who, that's the NZRU's problem, because they are the ones who chased the obvious head coaching candidates away.

Each coach/selector is as culpable as the next, and it's hard to know how Steve Hansen can keep his job when he has produced a lineout that couldn't catch a cold in an epidemic.

Maybe it's worth calling for Smith's head though because he is probably the one most likely to be let go - his presence has only ever appeared to complicate the backline and he is famous for mad-scientist theories.

The wanton selection theory which led to an inevitably useless midfield pairing should send alarm bells ringing at rugby HQ, because it is just this sort of miscalculation which brought the All Blacks down at the last World Cup.

If losing World Cup coaches really do learn their lessons, how come poor, over-matched and out-of-position Donald and blunderkind Nonu were sent out together against the best team in the world?