All Blacks legend left with ‘a lot of questions’ after ‘better’ Springboks prove him wrong
All Blacks players during their tour to South Africa and ex-wing Jeff Wilson.
Jeff Wilson is concerned that the All Blacks are not developing under the guidance of Scott Robertson following their latest disappointment against South Africa.
New Zealand succumbed to their second successive loss as they went down 18-12 to Rassie Erasmus’ men in Cape Town.
Although they were once again competitive, following on from their narrow 31-27 reversal in Johannesburg, ultimately the hosts did enough to claim the victory.
No title this year
It was their third defeat in the 2024 Rugby Championship, leaving their title dreams in tatters and increasing the pressure on new boss Robertson.
The All Blacks held a 100 per cent record after the July series as they overcame England (twice) and Fiji, but since then they have won just once in four matches.
After the loss at Ellis Park, Wilson expected a response but it never came as the Springboks kept the visitors tryless.
“They were better than us again for 80 minutes. I got that wrong, I thought that the All Blacks would put together a performance because we’ve found a way when we’ve had our backs against the wall, particularly against the Springboks,” he said on The Breakdown.
“We did a lot of really good things but ultimately the game is won and lost in the last 20 minutes against the Springboks so often.
“I have a lot of questions, and I don’t have a lot of answers. At the moment, the All Blacks themselves will have some really difficult conversations after this game, after what happened a week ago, and in preparation for the Wallabies in the Bledisloe Cup.”
Robertson made a few alterations for the match in Cape Town but it did not pay dividends as the Springboks went four from four in the Rugby Championship.
“I believed we would win. I thought we would respond, I thought we had the game, I thought we had the players, I thought the leadership was there,” Wilson added.
“If you look at the form and the way that our forward pack responded for large parts of that game, I honestly believed the All Blacks would win that game.
“Now I have questions because we haven’t adapted, we haven’t got better week to week. They’ve made some adjustments in terms of selection and that didn’t work for this Test match.”
Debate settled
One more victory for the Springboks will guarantee the Rugby Championship title, which will be their first since 2019.
The All Blacks have dominated this competition since its inception in 2012, but South Africa have proved to be far too strong this year.
New Zealand centurion Mils Muliaina believes that it has very much settled the debate over which team is the best after the Boks held onto their number one ranking.
“They are [better than the All Blacks]. They’re the world champions, they’ve now taken the Freedom Cup back that hasn’t been won since 2009. And all going well they should win the Rugby Championship,” Muliaina said.
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