Humbled Springboks boss Rassie Erasmus has sifted through the debris of seeing his much-vaunted bomb squad getting neutralised by Dave Rennie’s savvy All Blacks in Johannesburg.
The eagerly awaited Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series opened in South Africa with New Zealand dramatically ending the Boks’ recent 12-match winning streak stretching back to last September’s record victory in Wellington.
After losing 24-17 in Auckland, South Africa hammered the All Blacks 43-10 the following weekend, igniting a run where they defeated Argentina (three times), Wales (twice), Japan, France, Italy, Ireland, England and Scotland.
However, this encouraging run of results was spectacularly ended at Ellis Park this weekend with the All Blacks generating a last-quarter flourish to win 33-16 after the Springboks critically resisted the chance to level the match at 19-all nearing the hour mark with a penalty kick.
“It’s impossible to attack without a nine and without a flanker…”
They instead decided to scrum and were penalised at the set-piece, referee Matthew Carley deeming sub loosehead Gerhard Steenekamp to be the culprit. Within minutes, New Zealand struck down the other end for a key try from Luke Jacobson.
South Africa’s hopes of staging a successful fightback were then further hampered by the yellow cards for subs Marco van Staden and Cobus Reinach, leaving them to finish the match with 13 players.
Head coach Erasmus had opted to go with a six/two forwards/backs bench split for the Greatest Rivalry series opener, but this divide was soon altered as Andre Esterhuizen, who had been named a back-up back-rower, was required to play in the midfield after Kurt-Lee Arendse failed an early first-half head injury assessment.
This substitution, which saw Jesse Kriel switch from midfield to wing to accommodate the arrival of Esterhuizen, was the start of an unforgettable evening for the much-vaunted bomb squad.
Asked to explain a disruptive situation that included subs Steenekamp and Esterhuizen getting subbed off before the finish, Erasmus began with how starting loosehead Ox Nche lasted only 45 minutes in the Johannesburg opener.
“Ox played eight minutes in the last six weeks, so we thought Ox was going to last probably just 30 or 40 minutes. He lasted 45, and I thought he really came through well in those minutes,” said Erasmus.
“I don’t think Ox is the reason why we lost, but then obviously he got tired and then we brought Gerhard on. Malcolm (Marx at hooker) played pretty well, and we thought let’s just give Jan Hendrick (Wessels, the sub hooker) the last 15, 20 minutes (at loosehead).
“But then I feel the match was already lost when we had two yellow cards, and we knew the last 10 minutes we’re going to play with 13 men. It’s tough to get them [the All Blacks] back with only 13 men on the scoreboard.
“Subs-wise, Kurt-Lee got HIA, so we couldn’t use Andre as a forward. We wanted to use him as a forward in this game, but he had to go to centre, and obviously Jesse had to play out of position then on wing.
“Then Cheslin (Kolbe) got injured later and Cobus had to go to nine because we had three backs on the bench, so Cobus had to go to nine and Grant (Williams, the starting scrum-half) had to go to wing and then to get Manie (Libbok) onto the field because we prepped with Andre at flanker most of the time, getting Manie on meant Sacha (Feinberg-Mngomezulu) had to go to 15.
“So one or two injuries were disrupting the way we actually planned to play the game, and that’s nobody’s fault apart from that we got injuries.
“Then Marco got a yellow card and Cobus got a yellow card, the two guys that we put on.
“So, then the game was totally lost. It’s impossible to attack without a nine and without a flanker. It was a lost case; I thought at the stage when we were 10 points behind and had to play from inside our own 22 with only 13 men. It’s tough to crawl back then.”
Dave Rennie hails ‘massive stat’ in All Blacks’ victory against ‘best in the world’ Springboks
The Springboks suffered more than 20 turnovers in possession during the Ellis Park defeat, a weakness that first Test captain Pieter-Steph du Toit highlighted in his post-game assessment. “We made a few critical mistakes, especially in the 22, and some of them were handling errors. It’s just something we have to fix for next weekend.
“Unfortunately, we made a lot of mistakes and, like Rassie said, the All Blacks were just better than us. They had some key points where they were just better, stripping the ball, making us make handling errors. They played a bit different than we thought they were going to play and that’s why they were better than us.”
Erasmus agreed, elaborating on what he admitted was a clever tactic by Rennie’s tourists. “They had a very clever tactic, again 100 per cent legal; they were stripping in the tackle. They didn’t tackle like we thought they would.
“They were normally either pushing down or top tackles and, in this game, they had a lot of strips. Even the try or the non-try which we mauled, the ball was stripped right over the try line.
“The one where Jasper (Wiese) got pushed into Grant when the ball got knocked on there; so a lot of them is because of the good work that New Zealand did.
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“The ball wasn’t slippery. We can’t use that as an excuse. We’re not an inexperienced team that played. It’s probably the pressure that they put on us at the different loose play breakdowns and so on. We didn’t do well there, and they did great.
“It [South Africa’s lack of execution in the opposition 22] is disappointing, and that’s probably the thing which New Zealand are great at – they really know how to stop you when you are inside their 22 in different ways.
“Be it stripping the ball, be it contesting for the ball on the ground, be it harassing the nine within the laws – I’m not saying they’re doing it outside the laws – and we couldn’t handle that.
“So yeah, I don’t want to be quoted the wrong way, but I thought up until minute 50 we were really dominating territory, possession and we felt we were really in the game. But the class team like New Zealand, if you don’t convert, they give you a proper hiding.”