Wellington – For the second week in a row, the Springboks couldn’t land the knockout punch.
After conceding a try in the second-last minute to lose to the Wallabies last week, the Boks were desperate to end their four-year drought against the world champions, the All Blacks, at Westpac Stadium here on Saturday.
And they so nearly pulled it off right at the death, but Richie McCaw’s men denied Jean de Villiers a famous win in his 100th Test with a 14-10 victory.
In a thrilling finish to a game that for large parts was characterised by unforced errors and sloppy execution from both sides, the Boks had three opportunities to maul over for the winning try, but just couldn’t do the business, with Lood de Jager being bundled into touch by a marauding All Blacks defence.
Unlike in Perth last week, and with the rain largely staying away and the wind not a factor, the Boks played with much greater purpose and fluidity on attack and defence, the set-pieces were functioning smoothly initially and rookie flyhalf Handré Pollard didn’t miss a beat in a polished performance.
They didn’t stand back for the much-vaunted All Black side, throwing themselves into tackles and going hard at the breakdown to slow down the opposition’s ball.
The double fetcher duo of Francois Louw and Marcell Coetzee were relentless in their pursuit of turnovers, and were aided by left wing Bryan Habana, who won a number of penalties “beating” the ruck as the first arriving player.
It was in attack, though, that the Boks made notable strides. Where they previously looked to kick almost every second ball away, even inside the opposition’s half, the South Africans tried hard to keep ball-in-hand to outmanoeuvre the New Zealand backline.
While a few box kicks were ill-advised from scrumhalves Ruan Pienaar and later Francois Hougaard, there was much less use of the boot, with 20-year-old Pollard marshalling the attack superbly in his cool manner.
He varied his play well, running hard at the line, then delivering short passes to his loose forwards and also flinging out long balls to bring extra width to the Bok attack. He was solid on defence too, but it was a touch of brilliance from the No 10 that unlocked the well-organised All Blacks defence.
With No 8 Duane Vermeulen, who was colossal in taking the ball up and making huge tackles, charging through two defenders to get well over the advantage line off a line-out, Pienaar got quick ball to Pollard, who ran a lovely angled line that dragged the All Blacks defence across.
Pollard then turned and produced a precise inside pass to a flying Cornal Hendricks, who hit the gap with ferocity, first shrugging off a tackle and then motoring past the cover defence over 25 metres to score his fifth try in seven Tests.
But that was the only time the Boks took full advantage of front-foot ball. Fullback Willie le Roux couldn’t get going and had a game to forget for making a few uncharacteristic mistakes while closely marked by the New Zealanders.
Bismarck du Plessis also had a nightmare time at the line-outs when he replaced Adriaan Strauss with 25 minutes to go. Strauss was outstanding with his throw-ins, but Du Plessis couldn’t find the target in his first three feeds, although he was good in general play. But for the first hour of this game, apart from the Hendricks try in the 17th minute, it was the All Blacks who looked the more likely team to score.
Dynamic No 8 Kieran Read and McCaw were finding holes up the middle, landing big punches in the Bok ribcage. But the South Africans never gave up and their scramble defence saved them throughout, despite Read beating De Villiers in the air from an Aaron Cruden cross-kick to put McCaw through for a five-pointer after half-time. But the Kiwis appeared to tighten up and feel the pressure after Pollard slotted a classy drop goal from 40 metres to put the Boks just a point behind at 11-10.
The longer the game went on, the more it helped the Boks, as the All Blacks just couldn’t break through. Pollard just shaved the uprights with a superb penalty strike from the halfway line that would’ve given his team a 13-11 lead with 17 minutes left, but soon after replacement flyhalf Beauden Barrett kicked an angled three-pointer.
Yet the Boks had survived the All Blacks’ relentless attack, and had put themselves into a strong position to win the game. The fact that they didn’t indicates that somewhere deep down inside, they might not truly believe they are good enough to beat the Kiwis. They could also feel unhappy about French referee Jerome Garces, who had an otherwise fair game, failing to spot how Read had interfered with Victor Matfield in the air at the last five-metre lineout at the end, which led to a scrappy ball for the Boks and pushed them back all the way to the 22.
One of the last three mauls had also been well set, and it looked as if the Boks were going to score, but the All Blacks forwards came in from the side and got away without conceding just a yellow card.
There was also a vital accidental obstruction ruling against the Boks in those frantic final minutes, but replacement tighthead prop Marcel van der Merwe produced a massive heave and it resulted in a scrum turnover inside the New Zealand 22.
But while Bok hopes of winning the Rugby Championship title are virtually gone, coach Heyneke Meyer will take some confidence out of this game.