ABs have a week to stew on loss
The fact there is no opportunity this weekend for the All Blacks to bounce back from their loss to the Springboks will add to the angst among a group of players for whom losing in a black jersey is virtually unheard of.
They have disassembled and will spend a week in their homes before those selected for the trip to Buenos Aires gather in Auckland on Friday before flying out. Their next assignment is a week on Saturday against a Pumas team boosted by a rare win against the Wallabies in Australia.
A week later, they take on the Boks in Pretoria, a test which has taken on far more significance following a defeat in Wellington in which they let in five tries in a 36-34 defeat.
Before then, Steve Hansen’s men will have plenty of time to think about what went wrong at Westpac Stadium. The All Blacks hosted the South Africans in their changing room after the test, and after drinking just about all the beer in sight, the visitors probably didn’t want to leave as they celebrated a first win over the All Blacks in New Zealand since 2009.
“I think we’ll feel this one for the whole week we have off until we review it when we get back together as a team,” a sombre and physically bruised All Blacks hooker Codie Taylor said in the immediate aftermath. “I know in the changing sheds, a lot of the boys are hurting, but you can’t take anything away from the South African team, they played bloody well and deserved the win.”
Lock Sam Whitelock said a day after the test: “We have to make sure we do take the lessons and the hurt and take it forward, not only for this week but for the future. Also, we can’t dwell on it too long. We have to be aware we can’t change what’s happened. We have to give credit to them — they took their opportunities.”
The last time the All Blacks lost back-to-back tests was in 2011 when they followed an 18-5 defeat to South Africa in Port Elizabeth with a 25-20 loss to Australia in Brisbane — Whitelock started both tests — before they won the World Cup for the first time since 1987. Saturday’s loss was only Whitelock’s ninth in 103 tests.
They tend to rebound well, is the point of all this, and it could be that the Pumas will feel the brunt of it. Such is Argentina’s improvement under new coach Mario Ledesma that many predicted an extremely tough assignment for the All Blacks in Buenos Aires.
That may still be the case, but after comfortably finishing over the top of the Pumas 46-24 in Nelson recently, their mental approach is likely to have a sharper edge now against a nation they have never lost to.
“It’s a bit of a double-edged sword,” Whitelock said. “We had been playing very well so we have to take that confidence into the remaining games of the Rugby Championship. If we can do that I’m sure we’ll play some good rugby.
“We let them score far too many points. We let them get a big lead and we caught up, but catching up isn’t good enough — you have to be in front at the end. We’re going home and the first thing we have to do is get away from rugby — take a few deep breaths — so when we do get back into camp in a week’s time, we’re ready to go, we’re not holding on to things that are in the history books now.”
Not forgotten, though.