All Blacks deliver perfect message
OPINION: Just when people started to question the unbeatable aura surrounding the All Blacks, they sent a powerful message to the rugby world.
Their 57-0 dismissal of the Springboks on Saturday night dulled those suggesting the side has fallen back to the pack.
The All Blacks were deadly. Every offload found a hand, every kick bounced up for them and every set play was timed perfectly.
When the All Blacks play with such confidence and attacking freedom, they are simply impossible to beat.
It would not have mattered who the opponent was on Saturday night, they would have been caught in the stampede - even the British and Irish Lions would have been left in the All Blacks’ dust.
Credit to Beauden Barrett and Damian Mckenzie for impressing after a couple of tough matches, but both men need to do the same in a tighter match to convince they are playing the right positions.
But let’s not kid ourselves into thinking the Springboks put up much of a fight. There have been some poor South African outfits over the years, but this mob was among the worst.
Long gone are the days of Victor Matfield, Schalk Burger and Bismarck du Plessis dominating the breakdown or Bakkies Botha and Pierre Spies causing havoc around the field.
Tendai Mtawarira was the only South African forward who could hold his head high in the soft pack which rolled out in Albany. Even Eben Etzebeth looked a shell of the man he was two years ago.
Without front-foot ball, their backs were irrelevant and their inability to match the All Blacks came quickly apparent.
All Blacks-springboks matches always come with heightened tension in my household - largely due to my South African wife Devashnie and her family remaining fiercely loyal to the men in green and gold.
As Saturday’s match kicked off, there was the sense that South Africa had a shot with the All Blacks showing some vulnerability in recent weeks.
For 15 minutes the tension built with the Springboks, dominant scrum and all, looking slightly better. That was as long as it lasted before the All Blacks took control and the result became an inevitability.
Up 31-0 at halftime, the match was as good as over. My wife, like plenty of other South African fans, was ready to switch off the game.
But there was another 40 minutes of torture to come for South African fans - 40 minutes of dreadful and sloppy play from a side missing the pride and intensity we have come to associate to the green and gold jersey.
It is little surprise my brotherin-law Deneshan was snoring midway through the second half - the Springboks were playing like they were half asleep anyway.
The only positive for Springboks fans is that their side can hardly play worst. If they start by fixing their lineout and by putting wing Raymond Rhule through an intensive tackling programme, the match in Cape Town will at least be much closer.