Armchair knee-jerks will never be happy
If the armchair knee-jerks who comment online had their way, every member of the All Blacks who played at Pretoria would be given the heave-ho. The fringe will have even more targets when Steve Hansen uploads 51 All Blacks to Japan on the end-of-season tour.
Until social media came along, and talkback radio, we figured everyone out in the rugby sphere was sort of articulate. Now we know.
An ill-advised perusal of many of the comments had me dreading watching the footage of the test, which in the interests of cardiac unrest, I did not watch live in the dead of Sunday morning.
The performance must have been terrible, because none of the All Blacks escaped reproach. The septic remarks had me doubting whether the good guys had actually won the test.
Even Aaron Smith copped it, maybe because he was caught clearing from a scrum by Springbok halfback Faf de Klerk. But had No 8 Kieran Read nestled the ball on his inside foot, Smith wouldn’t have been hindered by Read’s outstretched right leg.
An expectation had arisen that the All Blacks should win by hurling the ball across the paddock. Well, they believed it too at Wellington when Willie le Roux scored under the posts.
After the All Blacks chucked away that game, it injected new confidence in the South Africans for the Pretoria clash.
Their coach Rassie Erasmus had been awaiting the guillotine had they lost that one. Now, he’s almost the new Mandela.
The All Blacks took lessons from Wellington. Must have – Beauden Barrett took a dropkick on Sunday, even if under the safety of penalty advantage.
They kicked tactically more often, although the accuracy was poor, the ball carriers were isolated, Tim Perry missed a big tackle and there were too many penalties. But they didn’t lose because they won the last 18 minutes while the Boks had won the previous 62.
Now, the Boks are boasting they can match the All Blacks every time. We shall see.
Playing them in World Cup Pool B next September at Yokohama will be a climatic, climactic change from the All Blacks battling away before 51,762 at Loftus with Afrikaans invective raining down on them drowning out the haka.
There was also the 10-hour flight from Buenos Aires to take into account and playing at 1339 metres above sea level.
To rub it in even more, but for illness Jack Goodhue would have started at centre, while other first-stringers absent were Brodie Retallick, Liam Squire, Joe Moody and perhaps Dane Coles.
Retallick will regret taking that pass from Nehe Milner-skudder in the test at Nelson, when he crumpled to the deck. Having Retallick is like adding an extra V8.
The Springboks were stunned at losing on Sunday, as their body language showed. No-one loses from 30-13 up. That has to be a mental roadblock for them in future when it comes to closing out a test, knowing the All Blacks will always come at them.
The Africans do have damaging ball runners and – the cheek of it – sidesteppers. That’s mostly been a New Zealand thing, but Damian Willemse left Ryan Crotty clutching thin air Milner-skudderstyle.
It always struck me that if the South Africans picked their slippery players from their sevens teams, it would add real Spring to their Boks. So it has proved.
Then there’s Ardie Savea. He showed in Argentina he is a more explosive option off the strong All Blacks scrum than his skipper Read.
With Sam Cane now gone, Savea must be the new jackal because he is miles ahead of all other contenders. Akira Ioane, of Auckland, is of similar structure, almost unstoppable too, and they might be the future No 8s when Read pulls stumps.
Knight recalls
In response to my rant last week about schools poaching, veteran journalist Lindsay Knight sent more examples.
He quoted Daniel Carter, who spent one year at Christchurch Boys’ High School after doing most of his schooling at little Ellesmere College in Leeston. ‘‘Similarly Richie Mounga went to co-ed school, Riccarton High School, before going to Christchurch’s equivalent of St Kentigern, St Andrew’s.’’
Longest season predicted
When the Manawatu¯ Turbos melted against Hawke’s Bay on Friday, it summed up the desolate season.
When we first saw the draw, it was obvious a toughie loomed. Beating Waikato first up proved a bonus, as did toppling Bay of Plenty at another Manawatu¯ graveyard, Rotorua.
The Turbos needed a full deck of players and what with All Black callups, injuries, only one Super Rugby starting player, coupled with just plain poor performances and too few bonus points, it has been disheartening.