{"id":595062,"date":"2026-09-09T14:46:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T14:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/595062\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T14:46:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T14:46:08","slug":"nick-mallett-slams-scandalous-world-cup-draw-as-springboks-great-claims-all-blacks-are-catching-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/595062\/","title":{"rendered":"Nick Mallett slams ‘scandalous’ World Cup draw as Springboks great claims All Blacks are ‘catching up’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Springboks<\/a> and All Blacks are on course to meet in next year\u2019s Rugby World Cup quarter-finals, which is \u2018scandalous\u2019 according to Nick Mallett.<\/p>\n

The inaugural Rugby\u2019s Greatest Rivalry heads to Baltimore this weekend with South Africa leading the series 2-1 after clinching a 29-24 victory over New Zealand in Soweto on Saturday.<\/p>\n

While the All Blacks claimed a comfortable win in the first game at Ellis Park, the next two fixtures have been closely fought affairs between the top two ranked teams in the world, and the fact that they could meet in the last eight of the tournament in Australia doesn\u2019t sit right with Mallett and Springboks legend Victor Matfield.<\/p>\n

Scandalous Rugby World Cup draw<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a pity for me that we\u2019ll probably face each other in that quarter-final in the World Cup,\u201d Matfield<\/a> remarked on SuperSport\u2019s Final Whistle presents Side Entry show reviewing the third RGR Test<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mallett<\/a> chimed in, adding: \u201cIt\u2019s scandalous; it\u2019s not a pity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the two best teams in the world; they should get to a final if they win all the games,\u201d Matfield agreed and added that the All Blacks<\/a> are continuing to improve under Dave Rennie and are starting to catch up with the Springboks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s going to be a tough match, but I think they\u2019re catching up \u2013 something is happening there with the culture within the group. But they will be tested now. They haven\u2019t gone through losses.<\/p>\n

\u201cWill they make changes [for the Baltimore finale]? Will they put some of the older guys back in? Do they really believe in the group, or do they stick with the same guys to try and get a win?<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they go on the end-of-year tour, lose one more game, then their record\u2019s the same as it was last year with just three losses. For them, it\u2019s all about the players being happy in the camp. Everyone is in the same direction. It looks like they\u2019re a happy crowd. That\u2019s much better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ex-All Black: Greatest Rivalry tour \u2018so much more beneficial to us\u2019 than the Springboks<\/a><\/p>\n

All Blacks are catching up<\/p>\n

Rennie took over as head coach following the shock departure of Scott Robertson earlier this year, and while Matfield can see notable improvements in the way New Zealand are performing, he still thinks that the Boks remain ahead of them.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year with Razor there, it was between the Barretts and Ardie \u2013 it sounded like there was a little of a breakdown between the Crusaders and other players. So they\u2019re definitely on the right track, but in that second half, it showed they were still a little bit behind us,\u201d he added.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIf we really stand up, we pick our best team, we do have guys that come off the bench that are just as good as our starters and the impact they had. There were a few youngsters too, in Cameron Hanekom and Morne van den Berg; they were outstanding. I think that they are still a little bit behind.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mallett believes that the Springboks and All Blacks can beat any other team in the world and that South African fans would be disappointed to lose to anyone other than New Zealand. However, the former head coach sees areas of the All Blacks\u2019 game that they need to improve.<\/p>\n

Springboks team: Five takeaways as Rassie Erasmus gambles on \u2018cohesion\u2019 and DNA for a bit more \u2018luck\u2019 in All Blacks series finale<\/a><\/p>\n

Some of those could be fixed by the return of injured players like Scott Barrett and Tamaiti Williams and possibly the return of lock Brodie Retallick.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy view is that they are the top two in the world at the moment, and we can beat anyone. In fact, we\u2019d be very disappointed to lose to anyone at the moment, apart from the All Blacks,\u201d Mallett explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo the All Blacks are similar to us but they need personnel in the front row. They need Tamaiti Williams back, who\u2019s a very good loosehead prop \u2013 that\u2019ll help them.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre they going to get Brodie Retallick back? Are they going to get Scott Barrett back in lock? Will that make a difference? Will it allow Vaa\u2019i to play perhaps that Pieter-Steph du Toit flanker role? So they\u2019ve also got issues that they need to address, but their coaches and their players understand exactly what direction they\u2019re going in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dave Rennie reveals All Blacks plan to limit Springboks\u2019 scrum dominance as World Rugby disagreement continues after assistant\u2019s \u2018gravy train\u2019 claim<\/a><\/p>\n

Where Dave Rennie\u2019s men are behind the Springboks<\/p>\n

He also commented on the contrast in styles and approaches of the two nations. He theorises that Rennie and his staff have accepted that they won\u2019t beat Rassie Erasmus\u2019 men in certain areas of the game, so they have instead decided to invest in their strengths.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is what has been absolutely fabulous about this series: we have just stuck to our DNA. When we\u2019re in tough times, we go back to what we\u2019re good at, and we just emphasise it more and more: direct, scrums, mauls, aggressive defence and contestable kicking,\u201d Mallett said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have decided we\u2019re not going to be better than the Springboks at that. So let\u2019s be better at what the Springboks aren\u2019t as good as us and that is creating problems in phase play and playing off transitions, getting the ball however you manage to do it from a lineout. I think George Bower was their best lineout jumper; they threw to the front of the lineout the whole time, and in the scrums, they\u2019ve got to get better personnel. You\u2019re not going to win a World Cup if you\u2019re conceding four or five penalties.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sir Steve Hansen: What impresses me most about the Springboks and it\u2019s the biggest thing Rassie Erasmus has done<\/a><\/p>\n

New Zealand play like Rassie\u2019s Cheetahs<\/p>\n

But will the All Blacks\u2019 style of play be enough to win a World Cup? That was the question posed to Matfield who likened New Zealand\u2019s style to Erasmus\u2019 Cheetahs team in the 2000s.<\/p>\n

While he says that it is very effective, he believes that a power game will always be more successful than a game plan centered around retaining possession for long spells on attack.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve played against quite a few teams during my career, and if I think back, a team that probably tried to do that was the Cheetahs. Even under Rassie, when they played this wide-wide and kept the ball from everywhere,\u201d said Matfield.<\/p>\n

\u201cUsually they were very successful in the first 30, 35 minutes because the energy is there to get depth, to get in good position, and the skill level is there, but as you get tighter, you may be a metre too flat and all of a sudden, that pressure defence comes into play.<\/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

\u201cAnd that\u2019s what we saw in the second half. In the first half, they were brilliant. They were creating, and we were chasing shadows. They had the momentum, and then just before half-time, one big scrum, and you could just see that momentum shift, and the power game came into it.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of a sudden, they couldn\u2019t get their depth. They couldn\u2019t use that skill set because the pressure was just too much in their faces. When they needed to defend, they were on their back foot. I feel that if it goes 80 minutes, the power game always beats the nice skill set.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0Springboks v All Blacks: An England tighthead hands New Zealand an unconventional way out of the scrum in Baltimore<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Springboks and All Blacks are on course to meet in next year\u2019s Rugby World Cup quarter-finals, which…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":595063,"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-595062","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\/595062","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=595062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595062\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/595063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=595062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=595062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=595062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}