Nick Mallett: Springboks faced ‘different challenges’ to beat the All Blacks as the referee didn’t give us the benefit
Springboks Damian Willemse and Pieter-Steph du Toit with an inset of Nick Mallett.
Nick Mallett has hailed the Springboks’ ability to adapt to different challenges during Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry Series.
Rassie Erasmus’ men went down 1-0 after losing the opener at Ellis Park but bounced back to win three on the trot and clinch the inaugural RGR series against the All Blacks.
While South Africa were excellent in those three Tests, Mallett says that he never had the feeling that Dave Rennie’s men were completely out of the match.
Nick Mallett’s Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series review
He hailed both teams for their efforts, singling out New Zealand’s attack as a highlight of the series but also praised the Springboks for changing their defensive structures after the defeat in Johannesburg.
“There were momentum shifts in those games that I was never sitting there and thinking, ‘Listen, we’ve got this in the bag at half-time’, never,” Mallett said on SuperSport’s The Final Whistle presents the Side Entry show.
“These guys have the ability to score tries at the drop of a hat: one slip on defence, a stupid yellow card, and suddenly, the momentum shifts. I thought that an example of that was that first Test where we played actually quite well to get 12 entries into their 22, and very badly to manage only one try out of 12 entries was very poor.”
Adaptability was crucial to the series victory, according to the former Springboks head coach, who also pointed to the lack of scrum dominance reward that South Africa received in the second Test from referee Angus Gardner.
“In the subsequent three Tests, we had to face different challenges. A referee didn’t give us benefit from our scrumming; we had two that did. We had contestables that didn’t go so well, and then they suddenly did go well in the fourth Test,” he continued.
“We had a defence that had to adjust from press and in, to press and out, and I thought we did that really well.”
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2027 Rugby World Cup
Mallett also doubled down on his opinion that the series was more difficult than a Rugby World Cup, particularly next year’s tournament in Australia with the Springboks and All Blacks set to meet in the quarter-finals if they top their respective pools.
The winner of that fixture would likely play France in the semi-finals, leading the ex-Italy boss to state again that the final could be the easiest knockout match.
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“We had old players coming together, proving that they can still go to the World Cup in 2027. So much good came out of this, and I think that this four-Test series is so much tougher than a World Cup,” he said.
“First of all, you play pool stages, then it’s a quarter-final. Italy is the toughest team, and they’re out of the top 10. So you can’t compare that Test with playing the All Blacks four Tests in a row.
“If we do go through to the final of the World Cup, we’ll probably be playing the All Blacks, France in the semi-final, and then a team out of the top three in the final. So the final arguably could be the easiest game for us.”
READ MORE: Jake White: Springboks don’t need to change anything, the chasing pack has to catch up
