Smart All Blacks Kick The Springboks Into Disarray

What struck me most as New Zealand beat South Africa 23-13 in their showdown yesterday was that planning your strategy behind-the-scenes is where coaches earn their corn, and it is where the Springboks fell short this time.

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Exciting as Cheslin Kolbe, Makazole Mapimpi, and Willie Le Roux are as a back three, they do not have a reputation for being commanding in the air – and New Zealand exploited that to the full.

The South African back three were peppered with kicks, and Le Roux at full-back made mistake after mistake. It was the New Zealand of old finding a weakness in the opposition, applying the pressure, and exploiting the opportunities that came from it.

Both New Zealand tries came off South African errors. The first of them led to Richie Mo’unga getting the chance to put Sevu Reece away with a cross-kick before Beauden Barrett put George Bridge over, while the Scott Barrett try came directly from a Handre Pollard highball miss.

It does not sound like a huge error count, but it was made worse because when South Africa had their opportunities, if they had taken them in the same way as New Zealand did, then it would have been a lot closer.

The Springboks were nowhere near as accurate. For instance, the Le Roux pass to Kolbe in the second-half was a shocker, and although the wing picked it up, by then the cover had managed to get across.

If South Africa had put that chance away they could have been level, and have had momentum back in their favour going into the last 20 minutes.

In matches against New Zealand, you have to take your chances. Otherwise, you find yourself where South Africa did in the first half when they had all the territory and possession, but only three points on the board. Whereas, when New Zealand got a momentum swing, boom-boom, the South Africans found themselves 17-3 down.

Another problem was that it took South Africa 47 minutes before they realised that the New Zealanders were hardly putting anyone into some of the defensive rucks.