Kiwis toss away any benefits

When Tuimoala Lolohea scored for the Warriors in the 64th minute to put them up 24-18, it looked as if the Warriors would at least be alive in the top eight for another week.

But it wasn’t to be and they leaked 18 points, looking in complete disarray.

‘‘We were too loose, a couple of times we defended well and made them kick inside their half, then they get a 40/20 and you can’t let that happen at this level. It just changes momentum so quickly,’’ McFadden said of those last 10 minutes.

Warriors captain Hoffman was more critical. Ryan

‘‘If you want to be a semifinal football team you have to have that urgency and desperation to get the ball and defend your tryline.

‘‘We didn’t do that in the last 10 minutes and the Tigers took their opportunities. It feels that once again we beat ourselves.’’

Questions will inevitably turn to McFadden’s future as Warriors coach. But after the game, he was in no mood to reflect on this year or discuss bigger picture questions.

‘‘I’m not going to talk about that now, it’s too raw this loss,’’ he said.

‘‘It’s really shattering to be honest . . . I think I’ll decline to comment.’’

But there were two pivotal moments in the game McFadden was willing to talk about, the disallowed tries in each half for Warriors players obstructing Tigers defenders.

The second one will be hotly debated as Woods appeared to deliberately run into a Warriors player as Shaun Johnson made a run.

‘‘It shows a lack of awareness from the match officials to be honest,’’ McFadden said of referees Gerard Sutton and Alan Shortall.

‘‘Certainly [I’m] not going to put the loss down to that, I felt like we had more than enough opportunities in the game and we just weren’t tidy enough with our own game.

‘‘That didn’t help, but to me there are some real issues around that, both of those tries, if you playing in live motion, they’re just not obstructions.

‘‘The second one there with Woods, he’s engaged the attacker,’’ McFadden added.

‘‘He’s never going to get Shaun there and the rule is that the attacking player has to impede the defender, but when the defender actually engages the attacker, it shouldn’t be obstruction. He’s just milked it.’’ Kane Williamson had a South African to thank after the New Zealand captain’s call at the toss inadvertently allowed the grateful Proteas to assume control of the series-deciding second test at Centurion.

Had Pretoria-born Neil Wagner not enjoyed a relatively happy homecoming to the ground where he watched cricket growing up, Williamson would have had even more cause to second-guess his decision to bowl first and essentially cede the advantage to counterpart Faf du Plessis on Saturday.

At the close of a day of missed opportunities for the Black Caps at SuperSport Park, South Africa were 283-3 and well set to bat New Zealand out of the contest.

Wagner at least denied volunteer opener Quinton de Kock his second test century and, more importantly, he prevented Hashim Amla amassing another significant score against the Kiwis.

Using his preferred method of short-pitched aggression, Wagner coaxed de Kock to pull straight to Trent Boult just inside the long leg boundary for a belligerent 15-boundary 82.

The earnest left-armer then drew Amla into a rare false when the Proteas leading strokemaker had made 1000 career runs against the Kiwis, and an effortless 58.

Doug Bracewell, Boult and Tim Southee also caused the South Africans anxiety from time with swing and seam movement but the trio were unable to make inroads with the second new ball as the shadows lengthened.

Their partnership was also the Proteas first triple figure contribution by the openers in 34 innings since late 2013 against India in Johannesburg in 2013.

The timing could not have been worse for New Zealand as they strive to win a historic series against South Africa. The weather looks unlikely to come to the Black Caps assistance with a settled forecast.

Cook, a late-blooming 33-yearold who crafted 115 on debut against England at Centurion in January, reached his half century off 112 balls and added only six more before Bracewell - the unlucky bowler when de Kock was dropped - had the right-hander edging to Williamson in the gully.