All Blacks (15) 41
Tries: Dagg, J Savea, Smith, A Savea, Whitelock, Perenara; Conversions: Barrett (4); Penalty: Barrett
Springboks (10) 13
Try: Habanaa; Conversion: Jantjies; Penalties: Jantjies (2)
Christchurch - Who will stop the All Blacks machine?
Kieran Read and his men made it 44 straight wins on home soil with a demolition job of the Springboks, with the New Zealanders running in six tries to the Boks’ one.
Read’s charges have stacked up wins this year against Wales (3-0 in June), Australia, home and away, Argentina and now the Springboks. They have not been pushed to the 80th minute by any side.
Hopes of a surprise Bok win were dashed 10 minutes after the restart in this very one-sided affair, when Ben Smith crossed to put his side 22-10 up. It was an even contest up to then, the All Blacks leading 15-10 at the break, but then it was only close on the scoreboard.
The reality is coach Steve Hansen’s team were on top throughout, kicking brilliantly out of hand and playing the game in the right areas of the field. And they were gifted possession through basic mistakes by the Boks and they made the visitors pay dearly.
No less than four of the All Blacks’ tries came directly from Bok errors. It was infuriating to watch and coach Allister Coetzee must have been an extremely frustrated man.
The Boks' error-rate was appalling, their tactical kicking was poor and in defence they again looked all at sea. There was also not much to enthuse about on attack, the team playing without pace or width or creativity.
Beauden Barrett opened the scoring with a simple penalty after nine minutes after the hosts had dominated the early exchanges.
The Boks were a bag of nerves; Johan Goosen and Faf de Klerk making silly errors that gifted possession to the All Blacks and that would be pretty much how the first 40 went for the visitors.
The All Blacks spent a big chunk of the half camped in Bok territory and the speed of their game, and their superior kicking game, meant Adriaan Strauss and Co lived on scraps for the most part.
It was thus rather surprising when the Boks scored the first try, a super effort that saw them take the ball through several phases and in which Goosen and Pieter-Steph du Toit featured prominently as ball-carriers. But it was Warren Whiteley’s step and pass to a flying Bryana Habana, who ran a great angle, that left the All Blacks looking at each other with bemused faces. The conversion put the Boks up 7-3.
But then the Boks let themselves down badly, Elton Jantjies knocking on the restart and from the scrum the All Blacks scored through Israel Dagg. It was too easy for the hosts and a totally unnecessary mistake by the Bok No 10.
Then, six minutes later, the Boks again, naively, tried to exit their 22m area by playing wide and a poor pass by Goosen allowed the home team to again set up a scrum and from the set-piece win Julian Savea powered over in the corner.
Jantjies got his side to within five points with a penalty close to half-time but the Boks would start the second half on the back foot. And it got worse when Jantjies kicked straight into touch, giving the All Blacks possession from the off ... fortunately for them Read’s men were unable to make it count.
Not long after that the error-count went up further when De Klerk, too, kicked straight into touch and then Goosen, again, also made a basic mistake, turning ball over yet again.
In between the Bok fumbling, Malcolm Marx came on for Adriaan Strauss to become Bok number 876. Sadly me missed to find his lineout jumper on two of his first three put-ins.
Ben Smith then rounded off another impressive counter-attack from deep in his team’s own half; the score coming yet again from a Bok mistake when Jantjies’ clearance kick landed in the fullback’s hands and he set off on a run that would end with him scoring the try.
It got worse for the visitors around the midway point of the second stanza when Ardie Savea, who was on debut, scored his team’s fourth try – again from turn-over possession when Habana was caught in a tackle.
A string of Bok replacements soon after did little to quell the All Blacks’ tide and Sam Whitelock and replacement scrumhalf TJ Perenara also got on the try-scorers sheet.
The match petered out in the final nine minutes ... another mightily impressive win for the back-to-back World Cup winners; another massively disappointing showing by the Boks.
Independent Media