Mallett expects drama in World Cup

Johannesburg: Nick Mallett believes the drawn clash between the All Blacks and Springboks is a good indicator of what lies ahead in the Rugby World Cup.

The former South Africa head coach gave his assessment after watching the Rugby Championship game in Wellington as a pundit for Supersport.

In their last four meetings the All Blacks and the Springboks have been separated by no more than two points, something that Mallett noted.

“It’s literally going to be taking that one opportunity that comes your way and if you don’t take it you are going to be knocked out,” he said when looking ahead to Japan.

“It was just two well taken opportunities, that chip for the Boks and the turnover for the All Blacks,that resulted in tries. It was a really tight game.

He added on South Africa’s come-frombehind draw: “They were under the cosh a bit with the penalty count in the second half. But they came back at the end because they believed.

“The crucial sub was Trevor Nyakane coming on. Frans Malherbe was puffing and as Trevor came on we started to get a bit of dominance at scrum time. And it was a penalty at scrum time that gave us the opportunity to kick out, get a lineout and have an attacking play. Willie le Roux does a runaround and then there’s a beautiful chip by Cheslin Kolbe,” he said.

South Africa both started and finished the game in impressive fashion and their defence and replacements were key to that, admits Mallett.

“(Herschel) Jantjies had a fantastic impact when he came on. Speed of service was excellent and his defence was good,” he said. “What I liked about the Springbok defence was that they read the deep pass well and kept on pressing forward.

“I thought it was definitely a case of defences dominating both attacks because the Boks’ attack was also pretty static because they were knocked behind the advantage line by the All Blacks’ press defence and we did the same to them.”