Surprise defeat will sow seeds of doubt in ABs — pundit
South African rugby critic Gavin Rich wonders if the All Blacks’ loss to South Africa in Wellington might have caused “a questioning process” in thinking for the double world champions.
Assessing the fallout from South Africa’s 36-34 win, Rich wrote in his supersport.com column that “sometimes when you have developed a long winning habit, the loss that breaks the sequence can have disproportionate consequences in that it naturally sets off a questioning process”.
“The newness of the losing experience introduces doubts that weren’t there previously,” he said.
But having lost to Ireland in Chicago in 2016 and to the British & Irish Lions in Wellington in 2017, losing is not something new to the All Blacks.
At the same time Rich said that the Springboks had made a major psychological gain.
“Make no mistake, the Boks had a plan that they executed well and got the desired result, but it was always going to take a freaky type of game to end the All Black home dominance, and Wellington was that,” he said.
Though, with the statistical imbalance, it had been hard to fathom how the Springboks had ended up on the winning side.
“None of that should really matter though, for no one, least of all Bok coach [Rassie] Erasmus or his players, is pretending that this result means the South African game has caught up the New Zealand game.
“What was important in Wellington was that the Boks were able to get across the line as winners against the best team on the planet, and the psychological value of that and its potential to accelerate the growth of the team is priceless,” he said.
The All Blacks’ loss and the fact they now face two tough games on the road would boost interest in the next few weeks.
Argentina had shown with their win over the Wallabies that they were undergoing a renaissance and that their home win over South Africa had not been a one-off.
They will meet the All Blacks in Buenos Aires on Sunday week (NZT) while South Africa will host Australia in Port Elizabeth.
Rich wondered: “Was the 36-34 result in favour of South Africa more significant as a wake-up call to New Zealand or will their opponents be bigger beneficiaries because of the psychological frontier they may have travelled through in those passionate, tense and highly emotional 80 minutes?
“Maybe they will now be reminded that there are times they have to play ‘normal rugby’, and that their frenetic pace can cost them in crucial games,” he said.