All Blacks(15) 41
Tries: Dagg, J Savea, Smith, A Savea, Whitelock, Perenara; Conversions: Barrett (4); Penalty: Barrett
Springboks(10) 13
Try: Habana; Conversion: Jantjies; Penalties: Jantjies (2)
Christchurch - Heads are set to roll in the Springbok team after Saturday’s crushing defeat by the All Blacks in a Rugby Championship match here.
The Boks suffered a third straight away loss in the competition after earlier also losing to Argentina (in Salta) and Australia (in Brisbane).
Allister Coetzee and his team arrive in Johannesburg on Sunday evening after failing to fire in back-to-back matches and the under-fire coach says certain players will pay for their errors by losing out on a place in the squad for the home matches against the Wallabies and All Blacks in the next three weeks.
“Maybe some of the players are not ready to play at this level,” said Coetzee after the error-ridden Bok performance on Saturday. The All Blacks were in a different class – yet again, as they stretched their unbeaten home run to 44 matches since last losing in New Zealand in 2009 – scoring six tries and again finishing the 80 minute demolition with breathe to spare.
“I’m going to have to make some tough decision when I get back home,” admitted Coetzee. “We shouldn’t, however, have a knee-jerk reaction. No players go out there to deliberately make mistakes, so you don’t want to break them either. For many this was their first time playing against the All Blacks in New Zealand and the fact is this is a brilliant New Zealand team.
“But yes, this is also what international rugby is about. It’s tough to lose, but there will be consequences. We are an impatient nation and there is no doubt there is a difference between the Currie Cup, Super Rugby and Test rugby.
“If I have to make changes I will, but at the moment there are not better players. But it is unacceptable that so many schoolboy errors were made.”
The Boks gifted the All Blacks four of their six tries through their own basic errors; that is a knock-on from a kickoff and from the resultant scrum the home team scored, a poor Bok pass which didn’t go to hand was snaffled by the All Blacks who countered and scored, a poor clearance kick was run back at the Boks and the All Blacks scored and the fourth try, scored by debutant Ardie Savea, came after the Boks turned over ball on the ground and the counter ended with the flanker scoring.
There were handling errors, poor kicks, poor defensive lines and the All Blacks again looked sensational. They played with pace, accuracy and finished far stronger than the Boks did and that with a fairly competitive-looking bench on the visitors’ team.
There was only one positive to take out of the Bok performance; the try scored by Bryan Habana in the first half. The ball was taken through several phases, at pace, before Warren Whiteley stepped off his right foot to send Habana through, the winger scoring a well worked try.
For the rest, it was a shambles. There was little creativity with ball in hand and there were holes all over the place in defence, even though a player like Elton Jantjies, who again failed to fire in attack, tackled well in the busy inside centre channel. There were also good performances from Vincent Koch, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Whiteley and Francois Hougaard, who did well under the high ball and looked for work throughout the 80 minutes.
Sadly too many Bok players went missing in action, while others again flopped in the most important and biggest examination of the season. Decision-making in key areas continues to dog the side and not until the current Bok team has some men who will do the right things at the right time will the tide change.
The All Blacks are in a different class right now and perhaps their coach Steve Hansen summed up the divide between his team and the others best when he said, “We’ve gone to another level and that’s very satisfying. The machine is ticking along quite nicely as a result of that and we’re playing good rugby. Our style of rugby is also something to be proud of.”
Indeed, and how the Boks could do with a performance to restore the pride.
IOL