Laurie Mains: Springboks’ Baltimore win ‘was an awful lot closer than the score indicated’ and All Blacks ‘could have won all three of the first three’ Tests
The Springboks' Cheslin Kolbe and All Blacks' Leroy Carter compete for possession in an aerial duel, and ex-New Zealand head coach Laurie Mains (inset).
Laurie Mains’ verdict on the All Blacks’ loss to the Springboks in Baltimore is that it “was an awful lot closer than the score indicated”, and he feels the men in black “could have won all three of the first three” Greatest Rivalry series Tests.
The Springboks secured a 3-1 series triumph over their arch-rivals at the M7T Bank Stadium in Baltimore on Saturday courtesy of a 43-28 victory.
This came after New Zealand won the opening Test at Ellis Park in Johannesburg, but South Africa showed why they are the current world champions as they bounced back withback-to-back wins at the DHL Stadium in Cape Town and the FNB Stadium in Soweto.
And although it meant New Zealand lost three successive Tests for the first time since 1998, Mains, who was the All Blacks’ head coach between 1992 and 1995, feels the end result in Baltimore was not a fair reflection of the match.
Baltimore Test was ‘closer than the score indicated’
“It was difficult but that game was an awful lot closer than the score indicated,” he told The Platform NZ podcast.
“I think that when you take into account that the players of the All Blacks had injured and didn’t play and in particular Ardie Savea, for me there’s a couple of tweaks required in the team to get it to its best but when you look at that series overall, we could have won all three of the first three.
“There wasn’t a lot in it and the game on Saturday, yes the Springboks had a 20 or 25-minute period where they dominated us but I think it’s very fickle and there’s not much in it when one team is dominating the other one, often there’s very little in it and I feel that that is the case.
“This All Black team is going to get considerably better for the experience of playing against South Africa.”
Concerned with All Blacks’ aerial game
Mains admitted that there were several facets of play where South Africa outplayed New Zealand but highlighted the aerial game as the main area where improvement is needed by the All Blacks.
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“Look, there’s a couple of areas that if we were stronger, (we) would have turned it around,” he said.
“We’ve got Will Jordan and we’ve got Jordie Barrett, who are very strong taking the ball in the air because they’re tall enough to compete with those South African players.
“But it was just a given 30 or 40 metres for South Africa every time they put up an up-and-under.
“Whether they replace Damian McKenzie or when the Springboks are putting the ball in the scrum, we need to have either Will Jordan or Jordie Barrett underneath those high kicks where they can compete in the air.
“And that was the biggest single area I felt that they were on top of us.”