Sir Steve Hansen believes that the All Blacks are still behind the Springboks despite pushing Rassie Erasmus’ men all the way in Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series.
Dave Rennie’s charges went one-nil up after defeating the back-to-back world champions in the opening game of the series at Ellis Park but went on to lose the next three matches in succession.
Both teams were in with a shot at winning the latter three Test matches, but the games were ultimately decided by momentum and small moments that swung in the Springboks‘ way.
In the match in Baltimore, one of those moments was Cameron Hanekom’s tackle on Josh Moorby, when the All Blacks winger was catching the ball. There is an argument that the Bok loose forward did make an early tackle, but the officials deemed that it was simultaneous with the winger catch the ball and allowed the game to play on.
All Blacks were relying on the referee
Kurt-Lee Arendse scooped up the loose ball and ran from his own 22 to score a runaway try that gave South Africa a 36-21 buffer.
Speaking on the Rugby Unity podcast, Hansen didn’t argue that particular decision despite suggesting that the Springboks did get the ‘rub of the green’ on the day, adding that happens when a team is on the front foot.
However, he did say that Rennie would be questioning the actions of his players after Moorby failed to gather the ball.
“The problem the All Blacks will have with that is they’re relying on the ref [to make a call],” he said.
“We’re a team that relies on ourselves to do what’s right. So, I’m sure Dave and his team will be looking at how we reacted after we didn’t, like we could have stopped the try if we reacted better and faster.”
The 2015 World Cup-winning coach added that he believes that Rassie Erasmus’ men are the better team right now, but he adds that he is encouraged by the fact that the All Blacks weren’t completely outplayed.
“It has been small margins right through the whole series, and that’s the exciting thing for me because I think we’re still behind them,” he explained.
“There are things in our game that aren’t quite as good as they could be, but they’re all fixable, and I’m sure they’re all well aware of what they are. So we played that fourth Test with probably the group that hasn’t played too often together.”
The Springbok, New Zealand have to beat
South Africa and New Zealand are on a collision course for the Rugby World Cup quarter-finals next year, and Hansen believes that if Rennie’s men are to beat the Springboks, they will need to find a way to expose Jesse Kriel defensively.
The veteran centre is the leader of South Africa’s defence and managed to shut down New Zealand’s attack several times throughout the series and the last Test in the USA, particularly with Richie Mo’unga getting his first run in the number 10 jersey since Rennie took charge of the team.
This is one of the areas where Hansen sees a fix in the All Blacks’ game.
“Mo’unga coming back in, his first go-round under the new system, and Kriel forced us a lot,” the former All Blacks boss said.
“We’ve got to find a way to beat him, and there are only two ways: you either go around him, and that’s the only way we’re doing it at the moment but we’ve got to be able to come inside him; we’ve got to win the race to the space that he’s trying to shut off.
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“There was a great example there once he intercepted the ball because we tried to pass over him or before him, and now if we could have a player coming inside where he’s stationary because he’s just standing there, he’s trying to block off the vision for the ball carrier to say, ‘Hey, I can’t throw it there, but I’ve got to carry’. So we need someone to come in short.
“If we can get that going with some real power and consistency, then I think we then challenge South Africa to say, ‘Well, now they’re starting to breach us on the inside of Kriel, and they’re not going on the outside all the time. If we do that, then we’ve got a two-pronged attack rather than just the one we have at the moment, but it just takes a bit of time.”