Inferior side beaten by exceptional one

THERE is no positive at all to take from the Springboks getting zero – and conceding a massive 57 points.

It is also not a rugby result simply to be forgotten.

A Kiwi mate, a few years ago, told me the games between the All Blacks and the Boks had long stopped being a rivalry and it was more a case of serious assault to the body and mind of every South African supporter.

This friend said the difference between the supporters of the All Blacks and the Boks was that we in South Africa remembered the one we had won and they (Kiwi supporters) remembered the one they had lost.

He has a point – the All Blacks only lost one of the last 11 matches against the Boks and South Africa have only won one of the last five at home against them.

But Saturday’s 57-0 Springbok loss is one that both sets of supporters will remember.

The Kiwis will remember it for the day they perhaps buried the amateur-era rivalry which had us superior in match-ups.

The Springboks, before South Africa’s return from international rugby isolation in 1992, had won 21 and lost 16 to the All Blacks.

Subsequently, they have won 14 from 52 and have conceded 50-plus points to the All Blacks three times – two of them in the last two tests.

It’s been brutal and, while last season’s 57-15 defeat in Durban was painful, it was half expected, given the state of the Springboks.

The South Africans had lost to Ireland at home, lost to Australia and Argentina away and been thumped in New Zealand.

This time, however, there was no fear of a total blowout, though it was generally accepted the All Blacks would win.

The Boks were in good shape and seemed in a good space.

They had won five and drawn one of their last six tests. They looked well organised, with confidence, and there was reason to feel good about their progress.

They had improved from a record world ranking low of seventh at the end of last year to the lot more appropriate and acceptable third, of a week ago.

France had been dismissed easily, Argentina was brushed aside and the 23-all draw against the Wallabies in Australia was the best Springbok result in Australasia in the past four years.

There was reason for optimism and there was good cause to have an expectation.

I had the Boks to be competitive, thinking they were good enough to come within 10 points.

The Wallabies – despite the hammering in Sydney – were two minutes away from winning in Dunedin and Argentina were competitive with the All Blacks for an hour in New Zealand.

Last year, the Boks were losing to Italy and Argentina.

This year, they were beating France and Argentina.

They had improved, but the improvement can now be mea- sured as apples v apples and pears v pears. The Springboks have not advanced at all against the All Blacks and inexperience and youthfulness cannot be used again as an excuse.

The All Blacks are every bit as youthful as the Boks, especially among their backs.

There has been a huge player transition in the All Blacks since the World Cup final win in 2015.

On average, only five of the All Blacks’ World Cup winning starting team are now regular starters.

Springbok coach Allister Coetzee has been taken apart in debates on social media, but Brendan Venter, Franco Smith and Johann van Graan have been the coaching axis this year and up until Albany, have been credited with the transformation of the Boks.

To single out Coetzee only in defeat is wrong. The coaches, as a collective, had it wrong against the All Blacks and the players in whom they invested were not good enough.

This was not a bad day at the office – it was an inferior team taking a beating from an exceptional side.

The Springbok back three, individually and collectively, are not good enough if the goal is to be the best in the world.

The halfbacks are not good enough, the back-row combination that started was not good enough, and the tight five as a unit is not quite as good as they were made to look against France and Argentina. The midfield has been hit and miss.

Victories against teams ranked eighth and 10th in the world were good for morale, but those victories duped us because it was all we had as a measurement.

Saturday’s Albany downfall is a reality check from which there is no escape and from which there should be no desire to want a quick escape.

To forget it is to forget that South Africa can ever again be a threat to New Zealand.