{"id":578701,"date":"2026-08-24T10:32:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T10:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/578701\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T10:32:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T10:32:08","slug":"nick-mallett-pins-springboks-defeat-on-duo-who-werent-good-enough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/578701\/","title":{"rendered":"Nick Mallett pins Springboks defeat on duo who weren’t ‘good enough’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nick Mallett has rued the Springboks<\/a>\u2019 inability to capitalise on opportunities in their defeat to the All Blacks at Ellis Park Stadium.<\/p>\n

Rassie Erasmus\u2019 men threatened New Zealand on multiple occasions throughout the Rugby\u2019s Greatest Rivalry series opener in Johannesburg, but repeatedly failed to make the most of their chances, scoring just one try with the visitors dotting down five times to secure a 33-16 victory.<\/p>\n

South Africa dominated much of the first half but led by just a point heading into the break, with the All Blacks managing to repel several threatening-looking attacks. The Boks racked up 10 22-metre entries throughout the 80 minutes but averaged 0.7 points per entry, while Dave Rennie\u2019s side were far more ruthless, averaging 3.6 points from their nine entries.<\/p>\n

Springboks\u2019 halfbacks wasted opportunities<\/p>\n

While Mallett<\/a> says that the All Blacks<\/a>\u2018 defence deserves credit for their efforts, he singled out the Springboks<\/a>\u2018 halfbacks, Grant Williams and Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, as the reasons for the side\u2019s inability to score points.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Springboks had opportunities and didn\u2019t take them; they had opportunities, and they took almost every one,\u201d the former Springboks head coach said on the Talking Boks podcast.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn that first half, we had an absolute plethora of opportunities with the number of carries we had into their 22. After 60 minutes, we had something like 11 or 12 22-metre entries and we\u2019d only scored 10 points.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have problems around our attack; we have problems around our calmness and our direction in our attack. I think that is around our nine and ten. I thought unfortunately Grant Williams wasn\u2019t at his best; he was a little bit indecisive and slow at the breakdown. He wasn\u2019t sure who he was passing to, and I thought Sacha also didn\u2019t have a great game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would give them sort of four out of ten in terms of their ability to direct the Springboks\u2019 play, and I think that was where we lost it\u2026 So nine and ten were critical in this game, and I didn\u2019t think they played well enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

Springboks: SEVEN reasons and a \u2018damning statistic\u2019 behind their loss to the All Blacks<\/a><\/p>\n

Rassie Erasmus needs to find a solution<\/p>\n

The faltering attack wasn\u2019t the only issue for the Boks, according to Mallett, who also highlighted the side\u2019s indiscipline as a major factor in the defeat. However, he adds that Erasmus needs to find a solution to the team\u2019s inefficiency in the All Blacks\u2019 22 ahead of the second Test match in Cape Town.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a whole, I think we created as many, if not more, chances than the All Blacks, but they took their chances unbelievably well, and we weren\u2019t able to take ours,\u201d he continued<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, that is the big question that is going to be facing Rassie and his selectors this week: how can we improve our performance inside their 22? Obviously, our discipline at the end of the game was a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Springboks v All Blacks: Winners and losers as New Zealand duo show \u2018best in the world\u2019 credentials while Bomb Squad falters<\/a><\/p>\n

\ufeff<\/p>\n

Selection debate for Test II<\/p>\n

There is a debate on whether Erasmus should change the halfbacks for the second Test match, with some suggesting that Williams and Feinberg-Mngomezulu should be given another chance.<\/p>\n

Mallett believes that if the Springboks want to play with ball in hand against New Zealand, then Manie Libbok is the man who should be handed the number 10 jersey, but he could also see Handre Pollard start in the position in Cape Town.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always said that the bus is driven by your 9 and 10,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

Springboks: Rassie Erasmus verdict on \u2018nobody\u2019s fault\u2019 rejig and area of play where Pieter-Steph du Toit felt All Blacks \u2018were better\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is right to say that you keep the same team and we will be better next week, but the 9 and 10 have to take responsibility more than they did in that game. And I\u2019ve said before that if you want to play a game where your backline comes into play, Manie Libbok is a better fly-half than Sacha. Sacha is a better defender; he is better individualistically but collectively, Manie Libbok is someone who can get our backline away.<\/p>\n

Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for world-class coverage you can trust.<\/p>\n

\u201cI also think Morne van den Berg is a very, very underrated scrum-half. I know that there will be a feeling that it\u2019s wet in Cape Town; let\u2019s go for safety, let\u2019s go for Pollard. Well, that is Rassie\u2019s job to pick the right guy now, and he knows the feeling in the team. He knows whether the team is going to be incredibly frustrated and wants to bounce back. He will make the right decisions here.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom my personal point of view, looking at that game, I think that when you have an attack, you\u2019re not sure whether it\u2019s a forward who\u2019s going to run up or whether it\u2019s the backline you\u2019re going to run up. That\u2019s because of poor communication from the nine and 10, the nine with his forwards, and the 10 with his number nine. So that is something we have to clear up before the game on Saturday.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0Comment: Choosing to leave Handre Pollard\u2019s skillset, experience and big match temperament on the sidelines was a big Springboks mistake<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nick Mallett has rued the Springboks\u2019 inability to capitalise on opportunities in their defeat to the All Blacks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":578702,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1463,1464,111,43,139,69,6327,213],"class_list":["post-578701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-home-page","tag-internationals","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=578701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/578702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=578701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=578701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=578701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}