He [Beauden Barrett] remains a magnificent player. But the Carlos Spencer factor nags. When defences are at their most aggressive, will Beauden have one of his bad days?
And that was the noticeable gulf between the teams. England were more athletic. Their centre Serena Guthrie never stopped moving. And when every pass and every shot is made under stress, sooner or later the mental strain tells. New Zealand were wiped out 14-5 in the final quarter. Their brains and bodies crumbled.
There is a notion called the ‘‘central governor’’ theory where the brain tells the body to shut down in order to protect itself when it is over physically exerted. This happens typically in long-distance running. But sometimes stress can cause body and mind to shut down. New Zealand’s netballers were stressed. So were the All Blacks.
Those South African tries did not come about by chance. De Klerk and Willie Le Roux ran like madmen to close down Jordie Barrett’s throw in. They stressed Rieko Ioane and caused him to make a poor decision in moving away from the long throw instead of toward it. He was moving away from the charging South Africans and so didn’t catch the ball on the full.
The interception of Anton Lienertbrown was also a mistake borne of stress. Kriel had rushed Liam Squire. Pieter-steph du Toit rushed Lienertbrown. A L-B avoided him, but Kolisi and Le Roux had taken up good cover positions and time was running out. The interception was a result of the squeeze.
Beauden Barrett suffered similar problems. Malcolm Marx’s try was preceded by Barrett kicking away possession into the in-goal area. The execution was poor under pressure. Barrett followed that by a crosskick that went out on the full. South Africa scored from the position and possession Barrett had given away.
He continued to kick too far and as the tactical leader of the team he made a poor decision in failing to take a drop goal at the end. But we have seen him struggle before against the Lions and against the Crusaders when his time is taken away.
New Zealand are still more than good enough to win the World Cup with Beauden at 10. He remains a magnificent player. But the Carlos Spencer factor nags. When defences are at their most aggressive, will Beauden have one of his bad days?
It has always been the extent of the range of his performances, from low to high, that has been the worry. The low is too low, the range too great. Would New Zealand have lost on Saturday with Richie Mo’unga or Aaron Cruden at 10? Perhaps not.
And don’t be fooled by the final scoreline. South Africa were absolutely done in by Nigel Owens. The All Blacks scored a first half try preceded by a colossal Lienert-brown knock-on. And Owens gave the All Blacks seven consecutive second half penalties in the space of 22 minutes, half of which were absurd.
Happily for South Africa, Owens did not deny them a deserved victory, he just narrowed the margin.
Finally time ran out on New Zealand.