#4. Rieko Ioane (All Blacks)
FloRugby 4/10: “Threatened when the ball finally reached him, but South Africa squeezed his space all night. Seventeen metres from four carries and tidy defensive decisions on the edge. Worked hard on kick chase and clean-up duty. The break did not quite open for him.”
RUCK 5/10: “Really quiet performance, didn’t make much of an impact on the game as you’d expect from one of the more experienced players in the All Blacks starting XV.”
#5. Handre Pollard
RUCK 5/10: “South Africa’s fly-half had an uneven night, mixing moments of brilliance with glaring errors. He opened the scoring with a straightforward penalty and delivered a world-class 50:22 late in the first half, demonstrating his tactical kicking ability. Yet, his defensive tackling was poor, he missed another kick at goal, and threw a dreadful pass into touch. Despite his experience, Pollard failed to galvanise a flat Bok attack, leaving his performance defined more by inconsistency than control.”
Planet Rugby 3/10: “His sloppy pass put the Springboks under early pressure, and while he recovered to pepper the All Blacks’ backfield and put New Zealand under pressure. However, this was far from a vintage Pollard performance despite flashes of brilliance. His passing accuracy was wayward, and in some way that was due to what he was receiving from the under-pressure Williams.”
The South African 6/10: “The flyhalf didn’t get much ball on the front-foot and that is because the Springboks’ forwards were outmuscled and ultimately outplayed. He knocked over his first attempt at goal, but his flawless kicking streak came to an end when he skewed his second attempt at goal.”
Summary: Pollard showed flashes of brilliance with tactical kicks, but inconsistency and defensive lapses defined his night.
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