All Blacks v Springboks: The big concerns for Ian Foster’s side after record loss to Springboks - Gregor Paul

Ian Foster will have plenty of concerns after the All Blacks' loss to the Springboks. Photo / Getty Images

OPINION

The good ship All Blacks met choppy waters for the first time in 2023 in London and ended up looking a lot less seaworthy than at any time this year.

It ended up with a giant hole being ripped in the hull, as not only were various parts of the All Blacks’ game exposed as having a previously unrealised fragility, but they may have also lost another two key forwards for the opening game of the World Cup.

Tyrel Lomax hobbled off and Scott Barrett was sent off, and with Sam Cane also picking up a yellow, it was a night that coach Ian Foster will feel pushed close to his worst-case scenario.

The defeat wasn’t such a bad thing by itself and an argument could even be made to see it as a positive – giving the All Blacks a profound hunger to bounce back in Paris – but the nature of it was a concern.

A big concern. The margin of defeat was massive and reflective of the fact South Africa’s domination was total.

They were more physical. Way more physical. They were hungrier, sharper and their backline, never one that anyone talks about with much respect, were slicker and more decisive.

The All Blacks weren’t so keen to refer to this game as a World Cup warm-up, but they might now want to reclassify it as exactly that to try to downplay the significance.

The basic issue at the heart of the All Blacks’ problems was that there was not enough ballast to hold up to what was a relentless South African physical onslaught that came at the All Blacks from all angles.

The big green machine crunched through the gears and the All Blacks couldn’t do much to stop it.

As South Africa have shown many times in the past, if they get on a roll, they can put opponents in the washing machine, leaving them trapped in a cycle where they can’t get the ball, can’t cope with the pressure and so slowly disintegrate.

That’s what will be worrying the coaching group – the All Blacks lost their shape entirely.

They couldn’t get the ball or keep it when they had it and there was a hurriedness and scruffiness to their work that they must have thought they had eradicated.

The All Blacks haven’t looked this panicky and rattled since Ireland were pulling them in all directions last July and while they were obviously hindered by the red card, that felt more like a symptom rather than a cause of their problems.

They were already on the ropes long before Barrett’s daft moment.

The Boks, clearly aware that they enjoyed a productive 20 minutes when they attacked the All Blacks’ breakdown the last time the two sides met in Auckland, picked up on that theme in London and threw themselves at everything.

They squeezed an All Blacks scrum that looked creaky and will be creakier without Lomax and Barrett.

They got the better of the All Blacks’ lineout – stealing a few throws - and they were able to disrupt and slow what little possession the All Blacks had.

The overall effect was that the All Blacks, for almost the entirety of the first half, looked lost and vulnerable: they looked underpowered as if the clock had been wound back to the worst parts of 2021 and 2022 when they just didn’t have the wherewithal, presence or resilience to cope with what they were facing.

And the net outcome of all that pressure they were under was that the discipline collapsed and the penalties flowed - and inevitably, so too did the cards.

The All Blacks only had 15 men on the park for about 25 minutes and that compounded their problems. One of only two bright spots for them was the performance of Cam Roigard at halfback, who came off the bench for the last 30 and looked every inch a game-changer.

The other ray of sunshine poking through the clouds is the certainty that this defeat will ensure the All Blacks will be in no danger of believing the hype that was building around them after the Rugby Championship.

This was sobering, galling even and while it stung to hear the massive South African crowd revel in their team’s glory, it may not be such a bad thing in the wider context of this season.