Ex-All Blacks captain highlights ‘key moments’ which led to defeat in third Greatest Rivalry Test
The All Blacks in action during the Greatest Rivalry series against the Springboks and ex-New Zealand captain Kieran Read (inset).
Kieran Read has highlighted some “key moments” which he believes led to the All Blacks losing the third Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series Test against the Springboks in Soweto on Saturday.
South Africa are currently holding a 2-1 lead in the four-Test series after they secured a deserved 29-24 triumph over New Zealand at the FNB Stadium at the weekend.
This comes after the All Blacks won the opening Test at Ellis Park in Johannesburg and the Springboks bounced back with a victory in their second encounter at DHL Stadium in Cape Town.
The Greatest Rivalry series will come to a conclusion this Saturday when the M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, USA host the fourth and final Test.
Kieran identifies what proved costly for All Blacks
Much has been said about the All Blacks’ capitulation in the scrums against the Springboks in Soweto, but Read feels there were other incidents during the match which proved crucial in the grander scheme of things.
One of those came during the latter stages of the first half when Boks scrum-half Cobus Reinach ripped the ball from All Blacks hooker Asafo Aumua’s grasp in contact before the world champions launched a counter-attack which took them deep into their opponents’ territory and ultimately led to a penalty try.
“I think the key moments we’ve lost over the last couple of games,” he told The Good, The Bad & The Rugby Australia & New Zealand podcast.
“There’s that stage where we were dominating the first half (in Soweto), the tempo was up, we were putting them under pressure, and it just came down to that one kind of turnover about halfway and then they made that half break and got all the way to our goal-line.
“So, just that turnover meant that there was a scrum five out from the penalty. Ruben Love, yellow card, which shouldn’t have been a yellow card. That scrum obviously, they scored tied at half-time, whereas on halfway, if you get that phase play right (and) don’t turn it over or don’t have that silly error, you have a kick and you contest in their 22 or we get to build phases win a penalty and just that moment changes the entire game.”
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Read said something similar happened after half-time and that played a big part in the end result.
Springboks ‘nailed those little moments’
“Same thing happened in the second half just those killer errors that hurt us and (the) Springboks just didn’t make those errors so when they had the ball and had the chance they nailed those little moments.
“So, I think you can look at everything across the board and say there’s things they did really well and things they didn’t get right but there’s just a couple of moments in the game which for me it just looked like they won enough of them in that game and we probably just made too many errors.”
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All Blacks front-row Tamaiti Williams, who is currently sidelined due to a spinal infection, agreed about the All Blacks’ high error rate and pointed out that the reverse is true regarding the Springboks.
“Following on from that, I think they (the Boks) stack moments well,” he said.
“Like (a) positive usually turns into points and maybe we didn’t get that right, but they seem to just when they get something right, they get the next thing right too.
“But I also thought that there was a lot of bloody good effort to stop those moments from stacking.”
