Ex-All Black claims Springboks superiority in one area is ‘frightening’ as they expose ‘two’ significant New Zealand weaknesses
Springboks v All Blacks competing for high ball and New Zealand head coach Dave Rennie.
Former All Black Shane Howarth was staggered by the Springboks’ sheer brilliance under the high ball following their Greatest Rivalry triumph.
While New Zealand played some outstanding rugby and scored several brilliant tries, they were outgunned in the fundamentals.
South Africa’s scrum dominance has been much talked about but Dave Rennie’s men were also dominated in the air, particularly in Baltimore.
The Boks claimed a 43-28 victory in the US last weekend to complete a 3-1 series victory over their arch-rivals.
Howarth claimed that it looked like an “exhibition match” at the start but, once the South Africans went back to their strengths, the All Blacks had no answer to their opponents’ aerial superiority.
‘Phenomenal’ Springboks weapon
“If I’m brutally honest, this Test didn’t really matter for me if that’s a bad thing to say. As far as I’m concerned, the Boks had already won the series because it wasn’t in South Africa this Test,” the former full-back told Sport Nation.
“This was a money-making thing and, fair enough, if that’s what you want to do, that’s what you want to do.
“Just looking at the first five or 10 minutes, the Boks threw the ball around, we threw the ball around, so I thought, ‘Okay, here we go, it’s going to be a bit of an exhibition match’, but once the South Africans realised we could probably hurt them on the edges, they reverted to type and they’re bloody good at it.
“Their dominance under the high ball is frightening. It would be great to get an insight on how the hell they are that good at getting their kicks back because it was phenomenal.
“I don’t think any kick they put up we won, and it wasn’t because we weren’t giving it a crack; they were just winning it back.”
Jake White: Springboks’ onslaught proves that this All Blacks team lacks ‘Terminators’
Rennie has done a good job since taking the reins from Scott Robertson, but it is clear where the All Blacks need to improve if they have any ambitions of becoming world champions for a fourth time next year.
“There are two areas, which are the set-piece and the high ball, where we were exposed on this tour,” Howarth said.
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“Can we get a spy cam or something and see just what it is they’re doing? I’ve never seen a team in international rugby put kicks up and retain every single kick they put up.
“That’s what they did in Baltimore and that’s frightening.”
Reasons to be positive
The ex-All Black is not too despondent, however, with all four Tests fiercely contested as the tourists remained competitive throughout.
“We won the first Test by a record margin, we could have won that second Test and we should have won the third,” Howarth added.
“I hate the word moments, and I hate coaches saying moments, but it’s true. Will Jordan just scores a try in that third Test, Tupou Vaa’i drops the ball from the kick-off, what happens? Scrum, South Africa in our 22 and score.
“Once we got the ascendancy, we just did little errors or little moments of brain fades.”