The Springboks suffered a sobering slap of reality in Auckland on Saturday where their Old Foe, New Zealand, blasted them off the Mount Smart park, cruising home 35-20.
The Kiwis were ruthless on attack and the ease with which they scored their four tries has doused any euphoria left from the Boks’ rout of the Wallabies in Pretoria.
The All Blacks blasted out of the blocks and four minutes of hi-octane attack culminated in scrumhalf Aaron Smith finishing off a fantastic build-up.
It was a blistering start to the game and the signs were there that it was going to be the classic it had been hyped up to be.
In the first 15 minutes, the Boks battled to get their hands on the ball, mostly because they gave away four penalties as the pressure told, and Richie Mo’unga soon added a penalty to the conversions of Smith’s try.
It got worse for the visitors when more frantic pressure saw Will Jordan put big flanker Shannon Frizzell on course for the corner flag where he bulldozed over an ineffectual tackle by Willie le Roux.
In that opening 20 minutes, the All Blacks had enjoyed 90 percent of possession and converted it into 17 points.
The first time the Boks made it into the All Blacks’ 22, their maul was stopped dead, a worrying sign considering it is such a major part of their attacking arsenal.
But they did come within a whisker of scoring when a cross kick from Faf de Klerk to the corner flag was fumbled in the air by fullback Beauden Barrett, and Cheslin Kolbe was ruled to have lost control when grounding the all.
The Boks at last opened their scoring in the 35th minute when a penalty in front of the posts was nudged over by De Klerk. Criminally, they undid that by giving a penalty away from the restart.
The Boks ended the half with a siege on the All Blacks’ line but attack after attack met stiff resistance and the lopsided half-time score would be 20-3.
Five minutes into the second half, Duane Vermeulen came on for Jasper Wiese, who had made a number of handling errors, and the Boks seemed to pick up but then came a shocking mistake when De Klerk kicked a penalty to the corner but missed touch.
Shortly after, Willemse got the kick to the corner right and this time the Boks fixed their maul and it was super sub Malcolm Marx who surged over for a vital score. Kolbe converted to make it a 10-point game.
Mo’unga nailed a long-range penalty to steer his team to 23-10 but the Boks would score next in spectacular fashion when strong play in the build-up by Pieter-Steph du Toit ultimately allowed Le Roux to put Kolbe away for a sensational finish in the corner. Crucially, Kolbe could not convert his try.
A pin-point cross kick for Barrett to Jordan on the wing was converted into a seven-pointer and the Boks were out of range at 30-15.
It was game over with three minutes to go when Mo’unga ghosted through a gap on the blindside of an attacking scrum to score the hosts’ final try. Kwagga Snith snaffled a last-minute try but it was scant consolation.
Scorers
Springboks: Tries: Malcolm Marx, Cheslin Kolbe, Kwagga Smith. Penalties: Faf de Klerk, Conversions: Kolbe.
All Blacks: Tries: Aaron Smith, Shannon Frizzel, Will Jordan, Richie Mo’unga. Conversions: Richie Mo’unga (3). Penalties: Mo’unga (3)
IOL Sport