Jack-in-the-Boks
Tight games with South Africa always earn the All Blacks a ticking-off.
‘The Boks are back” seemed to be the big takeaway from the All Blacks’ 32-30 win in Pretoria. Which, in turn, suggests that reports of the demise of the great rivalry dating back to 1921 were premature.
In fact, the record book indicates the Boks never really went away. The previous 10 games between the two teams on South African soil were split six-four in the All Blacks’ favour. Last year, the All Blacks had a onepoint win in Cape Town; in Johannesburg in 2014, the Boks won by two points.
We know the scoreboard doesn’t always provide a precise reflection of the contest, but it was still intriguing to observe the differing reactions to the All Blacks’ two-point win and the Springboks’ victory by the same margin in Wellington last month. There’s a tendency to assume a team that leads for most of the match only to be pipped at the post is unlucky, and vice versa: a team that comes from behind to grab a last-gasp win has “stolen” victory or “got out of jail.”
The All Blacks being the All Blacks, they get the worst of both worlds. When they come up short, they get panned and their sins of commission and omission are balefully dwelt upon ( Sport, October 5), even as their opponents are being credited with a heroic victory. That’s partly because, after a defeat, the All Blacks generally toe the “better side won” line even when it didn’t. If they storm home after being on the back foot for much of the game, it’s because their opponents “took their foot off the throat”, if not “choked”.
In that sense they can’t win. And that is precisely because they almost always do.