Former Springboks hooker Hanyani ‘Shimmy’ Shimange has claimed the All Blacks did not heed the lessons from the Eden Park Test, where he felt they got the rub of the green.
After going down 24-17 in Auckland, South Africa produced a stunning turnaround to inflict the worst-ever defeat on New Zealand in Wellington.
While there were a number of things which contributed to the result, Shimange did highlight the officiating.
Shimange was among a number of former Boks to be frustrated by the refereeing of Karl Dickson at Eden Park but, with Nika Amashukeli at the helm on Saturday, he felt they got more “reward”.
The ex-front-rower reckoned their grievances, which were roundly dismissed by those of a New Zealand persuasion, were justified and that Scott Robertson and co. did not factor it in ahead of the rematch.
‘No one spoke about the refereeing’
“When they beat us in the first Test, no one spoke about the refereeing and said: ‘Listen, there was a bit of dodginess here. We won the game but there were things that went our way’,” Shimange said on The Verdict podcast.
“Every time a South African mentioned the ref, it was that we were complaining. This time the ref was a lot better, he penalised certain things, we got reward from the scrum and then the chickens came home to roost properly.”
Officiating was not the only factor for Shimange, however, as he also questioned the All Blacks’ coaching around their high ball work.
They have struggled aerially throughout 2025 and it was a weakness the Springboks exploited in the dominant Rugby Championship win.
“The territory for me is the big thing. Forget about possession, you can run the ball all day in your 22-metre area. New Zealand for some reason can’t catch a high ball, I don’t know whether it’s a coaching error or whatever, and they cannot win the kicking game,” Shimange said.
“It started against France, they sort of managed to get away with it, and also there was the back-to-back. The big question was whether they could win one Test but could they double up?
“They said the All Blacks must never play in Wellington again but it’s got nothing to do with Wellington.”
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The All Blacks actually took a lead into the break thanks in part to an outstanding team move which resulted in Leroy Carter touching down, but Boks legend Schalk Burger felt that they were otherwise pretty much untroubled.
“If you take anything out of the two Test matches, we had 13 entries in the 22 in the first game, they had four and scored three tries,” Burger said.
“We had 17 entries on the weekend, that’s 30 entries in the two games, and we scored eight tries.
“I think the try they scored was one of the all-time greats – the coast-to-coast with the skill execution – but that was pretty much the bulk of their 22 entries, which was the 25 seconds they were in our half.”
All Blacks struggles with ball in hand
Burger also claimed the motivation changed for the All Blacks, who have struggled to find their rhythm with ball in hand since Robertson took over.
The former Boks back-rower reckoned they wanted to “prove a point” by being more adventurous, but that it ultimately backfired.
“They went side to side and I think that was their plan. The first Test match was, ‘How do we get a result?’ The second Test match was, ‘How do we prove a point?’” he added.
“Tempo, side to side. The first set, they were not scared to go 15 metres back and try and play around the Springboks, and it worked once out of 80 minutes.
“They’ve always got that ability, but the rest of the game, as soon as they tried to go coast-to-coast and give up on the gain line, they got absolutely hammered.
“The problem is the ball was behind their pack of forwards the entire game.”