All Blacks player ratings: Cam Roigard and Mark Telea only positives on embarrassing night

Adam Kyriacou
All Blacks scrum-half Cam Roigard on his way to try against Springboks.

All Blacks scrum-half Cam Roigard on his way to try against Springboks.

Following their 35-7 defeat to the Springboks in the Rugby World Cup warm-up clash at Twickenham on Friday, here’s our player ratings for the All Blacks.

All Blacks ratings

15 Beauden Barrett: Anonymous. Hardly touched the ball due to the Springboks’ sustained dominance and it’s hard to remember hearing his name. 3

14 Will Jordan: Unlucky to have a score chalked off before the interval due to a Mark Telea knock-on, with both wings the only threats in the All Blacks backline until a certain scrum-half replacement came off the bench. With the game well and truly lost, Ian Foster opted to wrap Jordan in cotton wool. 7

13 Rieko Ioane: Much like Beauden Barrett, it was a quiet evening for one of New Zealand’s usual attacking threats. Canan Moodie outplayed him. 4

12 Jordie Barrett: Won’t want to see his attempted tackle on Andre Esterhuizen again when the Bok centre bust through midfield in the first half and it got worse when his offload gifted Kurt-Lee Arendse a try on 34 minutes. It certainly was not a good evening for the Barretts at Twickenham. 4

11 Mark Telea: A few avoidable handling mishaps in the first half but his take from an All Blacks restart was out of the top drawer. That seemed to give the wing confidence as he grew into the match thereafter, finishing with a decent return of 92 metres as he caused the Springboks plenty of problems. 8

10 Richie Mounga: Hit the post with a relatively easy penalty attempt on 21 minutes but bounced back with some typically elusive runs with ball in hand. But it was certainly not the match to be a fly-half against such a dominant Springbok pack as Mo’unga had little ball and plenty of defending to do. 6

9 Aaron Smith: An uncharacteristic sloppy pass on his own try-line early on that resulted in a Bok scrum five metres out. He did find his groove later with his service returning to its usual high standard, but even the great Smith could not turn the game and was replaced on the hour by Cam Roigard. 5

8 Ardie Savea: Emptied the tank as usual but his pack was bullied, with Savea only making 25 metres from his nine carries on a sobering night. 5

7 Sam Cane: Spoke well as skipper when his team was under pressure early on, which helped take the sting out of the Bok onslaught, but ultimately paid the price on 15 minutes with New Zealand’s second yellow of the game. Could not make inroads with ball in hand and now must rally his battered troops. 4

6 Luke Jacobson: Unfortunate that he was sacrificed on 38 minutes after Scott Barrett’s sending off. Jacobson didn’t make much impact prior to that. 4

5 Samuel Whitelock: Swooped for a superb lineout steal on his own 22 to help relieve some early pressure, but that was as good as things got as he was surprisingly quiet around the field, both in possession and defensively. A rare blip perhaps in terms of form? He will need to improve against France. 4

4 Scott Barrett: A victim of consistent team offences as he went to the sin-bin on 14 minutes for interfering at a ruck, but was then shown a second yellow card before the break, ultimately ending his night. Barrett has been great form in recent weeks but tonight was a game he would like to forget. 3

3 Tyrel Lomax: Disaster struck on 14 minutes when he went down with a worrying knee injury that we hope does not create World Cup heartbreak. N/A

2 Dane Coles: Looked for work but Coles isn’t the line-breaking threat he once was and he was quickly swallowed by the Bok defence. To his credit he did not shy away in his half on the field before being replaced by Samisoni Taukei’aho at the break, who struggled at lineout time where he was picked off. 5

1 Ethan De Groot: Penalised at the first scrum for his elbow dropping to the floor and then copped another on 17 minutes for a ruck offence, ending the heavy loss with five offences against him. De Groot made eight tackles and battled on despite a few knocks before coming off with 51 minutes played. 5

Replacements: Few made a significant impact off the bench as Tupou Vaa’i in particular struggled, but Roigard was outstanding and is arguably the only positive for the All Blacks to take from the defeat. The scrum-half scored a wonderful try, had several snipes and is very much at home at this level. 6

READ MORE: Springboks player ratings: Blockbuster effort across the board in record win

Features Cam Roigard Mark Telea

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