{"id":595720,"date":"2026-09-10T05:12:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T05:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/595720\/"},"modified":"2026-09-10T05:12:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T05:12:12","slug":"all-blacks-expecting-the-unexpected-as-series-comes-down-to-the-wire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/595720\/","title":{"rendered":"All Blacks expecting the unexpected as series comes down to the wire"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A new-look All Blacks loose forward trio will be primed for another direct approach from the Springboks in the fourth Test in Baltimore on Sunday in the knowledge that the world champions may attempt to go off script at times.<\/p>\n<p>The All Blacks will tomorrow travel from Washington DC to a city in Maryland made famous by television series The Wire which was written by a former Baltimore crime reporter and they would be foolish to ignore the clues pointing to a more expansive game plan from the Boks in the final Test of the series.<\/p>\n<p>South Africa\u2019s attack was far more effective in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.1news.co.nz\/2026\/09\/06\/saveas-injury-adds-to-all-blacks-woes-after-defeat-to-boks\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">recent third Test in Soweto <\/a>and they appear to want to continue with a more expansive approach. <\/p>\n<p>The results of it were obvious: four tries in a 29-24 victory at FNB Stadium as opposed to three in the previous <a href=\"https:\/\/www.1news.co.nz\/2026\/08\/30\/all-blacks-fall-short-as-desperate-springboks-tie-series\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">win in Cape Town <\/a>and only one in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.1news.co.nz\/2026\/08\/23\/blitzed-boks-in-meltdown-as-all-blacks-go-one-up-in-south-africa\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">first Test at Ellis Park<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>With outside backs Damian Willemse and Ethan Hooker in form and the creative Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu at first-five, Tony Brown\u2019s influence as attack coach of the South Africans finally appears to be breaking through and head coach Rassie Erasmus has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.1news.co.nz\/2026\/09\/08\/boks-hope-to-fly-to-new-heights-at-home-of-the-ravens-in-baltimore\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">already stated his men will attempt to run the ball<\/a> more at M&amp;T Bank Stadium.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe don&#8217;t just want to score maul tries or scrum tries, we also want to use other opportunities, so we&#8217;ve been working hard at that,\u201d Erasmus said.<\/p>\n<p>It might be dangerous to take Erasmus at his word given his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.1news.co.nz\/2026\/09\/02\/opinion-boks-media-sideshow-has-now-crossed-the-line\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">previous deceptions in this series <\/a>but All Blacks attack coach Mike Blair appears to be.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/ethan-blackadder-makes-a-break-against-the-lions-for-the-all-HLE272RCSZDHHFZC63O63QM7KI.jpg\" alt=\"Ethan Blackadder, outstanding against the Lions in Johannesburg before the second Test, is a chance to wear the No.7 jersey in the fourth on Sunday.\" width=\"800\" height=\"512\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"ImageMetadata__MetadataParagraph-sc-hi5x8q-0 cWTYyG image-metadata\">Ethan Blackadder, outstanding against the Lions in Johannesburg before the second Test, is a chance to wear the No.7 jersey in the fourth on Sunday. (Source: Photosport)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPotentially with them being 2-1 up they may look at exploring a slightly different game and they\u2019ve certainly got the players to do that as well and we saw a little bit more of that on Saturday from them,\u201d Blair said.<\/p>\n<p>Moving the ball further from their bulky pack to the wide channels in what are likely to be hot and humid weather conditions could create opportunities for the All Blacks, however, and Dave Rennie\u2019s men will again attempt to play at a high tempo to stretch a Boks defence that was better last weekend but still conceded four tries.<\/p>\n<p>Above all, the key for the All Blacks will be to build scoreboard pressure. <\/p>\n<p>The Boks are at their best when defending a lead and hurting teams with their set piece strengths \u2013 their last two Tests contain plenty of evidence of that, but they were in near disarray in the first Test at Ellis Park when attempting to fight back against the All Blacks.<\/p>\n<p>In that match the converted tries by Fabian Holland and Luke Jacobson late in the third quarter put the All Blacks out to a 26-16 lead and the Boks went into a proverbial tailspin in losing Marco van Staden and Cobus Reinach to the sinbin for cynical penalties in the space of a minute.<\/p>\n<p>A converted try from Will Jordan completed the capitulation.<\/p>\n<p>The problem for Rennie\u2019s men, however, will be attempting to contain the Boks and then make good on their opportunities without <a href=\"https:\/\/www.1news.co.nz\/2026\/09\/06\/key-all-blacks-trio-to-return-home-after-brutal-defeat-to-boks\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Jacobson and skipper Ardie Savea<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The injuries to the two loose forwards, especially Savea, are blows but will almost certainly give more of an opportunity to the impressive Peter Lakai and potentially Wallace Sititi and Ethan Blackadder. <\/p>\n<p>Lakai started at No.6 last weekend, with Sititi performing well when coming off the bench to replace Savea.<\/p>\n<p>Blackadder, meanwhile, has not been sighted on the pitch after putting in a memorable effort in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.1news.co.nz\/2026\/08\/26\/pushed-to-the-limit-all-blacks-get-out-of-jail-against-lions\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">tight victory over the Lions<\/a> in Johannesburg before the second Test. He must be a good chance to be named in the No.7 jersey or on the bench at the very least.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe definitely lose a bit of quality there but at the same time there\u2019s a lot of competition in that loose forward group,\u201d Sititi said of the injuries to Savea and Jacobson. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are a few young boys there but a bit of experience as well. We\u2019ve been together long enough to know when it\u2019s time to step up and hold each other accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new-look All Blacks loose forward trio will be primed for another direct approach from the Springboks in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":595721,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[789,111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-595720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-all-blacks","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595720","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=595720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595720\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/595721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=595720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=595720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=595720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}