Johannesburg - It was a glorious evening at the Mbombela Stadium on Saturday night as the Springboks crushed the Old Foe 26-10.
A special shout-out to the supporters in Nelspruit must be made before Morgan Bolton continues with his five highlights from the Rugby Championship clash between South Africa and New Zealand below.
They were awesome and created a brilliant atmosphere with their enthusiasm that certainly spurred the Boks towards victory.
1 Ruthless aggression
From the first minute of the match, the Boks were relentless.
They smashed their way through the All Blacks, dominating them in all facets of play. They were helped by the inaccuracy of the visitors, who had opportunities to exploit the spaces left open by the rush-defence, but were unable to to stitch together the necessary skills to exploit them.
The Boks’ first half performance, especially, simply cracked the All Blacks. They kept the Kiwis pinned in their own half for large parts of the first stanza – which continued in the second half – and which set the tone for a dominant performance.
Such was the Bok’s superiority that the All Blacks’ first real incursion into the Bok 22 came in the 63rd minute.
2 Faf out for the count, but Hendrikse steps in
Early in the encounter, scrumhalf Faf de Klerk copped a sickening blow to the head that knocked him out in an attempted tackle on Caleb Clarke.
With a 6-2 split on the bench, there was a moment for concern but then Jaden Hendrikse stepped in at the back of the pack and had an excellent outing. The young No 9 wasn’t perfect, but going forward there should be no concern about his abilities.
He was sharp at the breakdowns, and generally his decision-making was outstanding. His box-kicks were mostly accurate and he made himself a nuisance on defence. He was an excellent replacement after a worrying instance that could have derailed the Boks’ gameplan.
3 Springboks were this close to perfection
As good as the Boks were, they were not perfect. For sure they were clinical, but the scoreline actually flatters the New Zealanders.
The truth is that the Boks arguably left two try-scoring opportunities out on the field. The first was when Handre Pollard missed a touch-finder that could have set up an attacking line-out deep in the All Blacks’ 22. Another first half misstep was when Damian de Allende had space and support on his outside, but decided to take the ball up and then dropped it onto his boot for Makazole Mapimpi to chase down unsuccessfully.
The All Blacks’ maul defence was also pretty solid, with the Boks not getting the expected purchase from that particular attacking platform. Nienaber’s men also missed 25 tackles for a success rate of 79%, which is not good enough. The red card to Kurt-Lee Arendse was justified – a pity because up until that moment, he was having a great game.
These are minor quibbles, however, and as they build toward Ellis Park this weekend, the Boks should improve in those areas.
4 Of aerial battles and dogfights
To say the All Blacks were poor in the air would be an understatement. Atrocious would be a more apt description.
It is even more strange, in that they seemed to have no plans to deal with the aerial assault when everyone – and we mean everyone – knew that would be a part of the Bok gameplan.
Arendse is not a tall man, but even he out-jumped his counterparts on attack and in defence. The All Blacks seemed to have no understanding at the back, falling over each other on occasion when dealing with the box-kicks and up-and-unders.
It was bizarre, to say the least, and their inability to deal with this particular facet of the game is what really put them on the backfoot and under constant pressure. Equally, their own kicking game was poorly executed.
5 Malcom Marx at his best
The Bok hooker thoroughly deserved his Man of the Match award. He was simply sublime.
He is arguably the best No 2 in world rugby at the moment. He was solid at scrum-time, his line-out work was close to flawless, while he was physical in attack and defence. However, it was his ability to fold himself in half like a deckchair at the breakdown that really separated him from his teammates.
In all Marx affected five of the 10 turnovers the Boks made and was peerless at the ruck. Considering that when he first started his Test career there were major questions about his skills, especially at the line-out, his 50th Test was a magnificent showcase of his class.