Richard Loe: All Blacks take charge as Boks lack spark

Kevin Mealamu of the All Blacks is tackled by BJ Botha of the Springboks. Photo / Getty Images

It was another good performance by the All Blacks. Not as good as last week's but then it didn't have to be.

The Boks still looked only half fired up to me and maybe the key point of the game was that silly yellow card to Danie Rossouw. It wasn't a kick, it was a nudge, and the punches weren't up to much either.

Rossouw didn't deserve a yellow card but what he did was unnecessary and it put a real nail in the coffin of the Boks. They didn't seem to have much spark after that, except for a few minutes either side of halftime and late in the match when it had already escaped them.

The All Blacks went very, very well. They did well enough at the set pieces without dominating but their speed around the field, their work at the breakdown, their go-forward and their quick ball meant the Boks were out-manoeuvred and outpaced.

The Boks look a bit sick to me. I spoke to some South Africans at the game and they were full of criticism about the wrong people being selected. They had been to the Boks training and said they were poor.

They felt selections such as Ricky Januarie instead of Ruan Pienaar and Jean de Villiers on the wing were wrong - and hinted there are too many old guys in the team now.

I am not so sure about that but there is no question the Boks were too cocksure last week and did not know how to fix it this week. We got used to seeing them take charge in the Super 14 but it hasn't happened in the test team.

They didn't carry the ball well in the first test and it wasn't much better this week. The All Blacks got in among them, their aggressive nature put the Boks under real pressure and they didn't really have an answer; there's no real structure there right now.

For the All Blacks, I thought Richie McCaw and Kieran Read were immense. They are hunting as a pair and are a real force now, along with Jerome Kaino. That's as good a loose forward trio, working as a team, as you could find.

Piri Weepu had a great game and really the only criticism you could make was of Dan Carter - and how often do we get to say that? His kicking wasn't good, but it will be.