Springboks v All Blacks: Five takeaways as ‘brilliant’ Bomb Squad a game changer for Boks as prodigy holds his own in Ellis Park ‘thriller’
Springbok Grant Williams scoring against the All Blacks.
Following the Springboks’ late 31-27 win over the All Blacks, here are our takeaways from the Rugby Championship clash at Ellis Park.
The Top Line
A thrilling yet error-strewn encounter at Ellis Park saw world champions South Africa yet again demonstrate their immense resilience as they came back from a two score deficit to close out the Test in the last ten minutes.
The scoring pattern was quite remarkable as the All Blacks rocked their hosts with four tries in the first 51 minutes as Codie Taylor, Caleb Clarke (2) and Jordie Barrett all crossed until the Springboks unloaded their bench and turned the course of the match.
Impact replacements Kwagga Smith and Grant Williams both slid over for vital close-range scores to add to the first-half effort of Bongi Mbonambi as the Springboks managed to change gear and revert back to the simple principles of powerful mauling and absolute physicality to get them home.
With Pieter-Steph du Toit grabbing the Player of the Match award, the whole of the Bok back five had immense matches; the returning Jasper Wiese grabbed nine carries for 49 metres and 11 tackles on his much-awaited return to Test rugby. Alongside du Toit, the other starting lock Ruan Nortjie once again demonstrated his Test credentials with a really impressive display of the second-row craft, nailing 18 tackles in a massive shift.
New Zealand can be mighty proud of many elements of their game, but as the Boks grew into the match so the All Black discipline fell apart as they conceded 16 penalties and a crucial yellow card, leaving them wondering what might have been had they managed to maintain legality and also cope with that formidable Bok bench impact.
Bomb Squad Fires
The Bok record at Ellis Park was saved by their brilliant ‘Bomb Squad’ as Kwagga Smith once again came onto the pitch and put in a huge personal performance, nipping over for another close-range try after a period of Springbok pressure that saw New Zealand lose a player for collapsing the maul.
Smith really added much-needed pace into the Bok carries, crashing up several big exit plays to allow his halfbacks to get real distance from their own half at vital points in the last quarter. Alongside him, Gerhard Steenekamp was another able carrier, his powerful incursions causing real damage to the retreating NZ defence.
Whilst the Bomb Squad legend is largely based around the deeds of the mighty Bok forwards it was the brilliance of young scrum half Grant Williams that really sealed this win, taking his opportunity to scoot around the side of the ruck to snipe over for the crucial score that took the Springboks to the lead at the vital moment of the game in the last quarter. That try, combined with some impressive exit kicking at key moments, once again underlined the promise of Williams as he added some much-needed footballing intellect off the bench.
Whilst Malcolm Marx’s throwing will again be a concern, as he overthrew and lost three separate lineouts, the difference in the impact of both benches was poles apart and in the final analysis that much vaunted Bomb Squad once again was the difference between these two high-quality sides.
Sacha Poise
At fly-half, young Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu yet again took strides to demonstrate his growing maturity as he kicked 16 points off the tee, including a massive 62m penalty in the first half.
Whilst New Zealand effectively had three playmakers possessing over 150 caps controlling their kicking game, with McKenzie and both Barrett brothers having their moments with the boot, the Springboks had Feinberg-Mngomezulu running their kick plays virtually on his own, although there were a few classy moments from Aphelele Fassi and Williams in both exit and attack.
The Bok ten was put under immense pressure from the Kiwi blitz and for once, the free-running ten saw himself shackled by the power and pace of the visitors’ defence. However, a Test fly-half must possess an all-court game and the youngster showed immense poise as he varied his kicking strategy, dragging the tiring All Blacks back three to the wide channels of the pitch to give his chasers some space with which to challenge.
Sure, there were a few flaky moments; he overhit two or three restarts, one resulting in ten minutes of punishing pressure early in the first half and another going directly into touch, but it says a lot about Rassie Erasmus’s belief in Feinberg-Mngomezulu that he left the inexperienced playmaker on, allowing him to learn how to close matches out under pressure. It’s clear from how he responded that this youngster is going to be around for a long time as he totally vindicated his coaches’ faith In both his skills and his temperament.
Floored
If there was one area that kept under-pressure South Africa in the first 60 minutes of this match it was their ability to win the battle on the floor.
The penalty count of eight versus two in that first period told the tale of those breakdown moments as firstly Jasper Wiese and then Damian de Allende grabbed crucial turnovers to slow the progress of the phenomenally quick All Blacks recycle game. With both Nortije and Siya Kolisi adding real nuisance value in the ruck disruption it caused TJ Perenara and his breakaway forwards no end of issues as the Springboks stayed legal, low and level to steal and spoil in the face of the All Black attacking ambition. The penalties killed New Zealand and continued into the second half as both Ardie Savea and Codie Taylor were penalised for illegal steals in the face of some brutal clearing from the Bok forwards.
The All Blacks really missed the skills of Dalton Papali’i around that ruck contest, a man that competes with the best of them over the ball, and as the match wore on South Africa started to flex their power around the breakdown, getting the shoulder and the clear out marginally quicker than their opponents. It took until the 47th minute for New Zealand to reply in the battle as Tupou Vaa’i managed to grab a jackal penalty, one of two he stole, for the visitors that allowed McKenzie to slot a vital three points.
Outgunned in the air, often on the back foot for long periods of the match, it was the ruck work of the Boks that just allowed them to squeeze back into the game, to slow the wave of AB attacks and to exit successfully on a number of crucial occasions.
Centres of Defence
The early course of this match was framed by two or three crucial plays in the defensive sets of the midfield as New Zealand put huge pressure on the Springbok exit strategy.
Firstly, we say Damian de Allende rush hard out of the line to get up in the face of TJ Perenara as NZ threatened the SA 22 in the first quarter. A show and go in the face of the onrushing de Allende allowed Perenara to give Damian McKenzie a microsecond on the ball and fast hands, with Tyrel Lomax adding the extra man in midfield, were enough to send Clarke over in the corner.
Just after halftime, Jordie Barrett made the same rush call from 12 as de Allende had in the first half but his timing was Swiss-watch perfect, as he picked off a pass in the Bok midfield to go scooting under the posts to grab a crucial score to take his team to an eight-point lead at the time.
With Kurt-Lee Arendse off for a head injury, a rearrangement in midfield didn’t help the Springbok defensive alignment and as New Zealand made a set play going long and over the line out to get to the fringes of the SA defence, the men in green failed to drift, leaving a three on two in the outside channel for Clark to grab his second of the match.
In a game of millimetre-tight calls, any of these incidents could have gone a different way – these are world-class athletes playing on the edge of timing- but today was New Zealand’s day and in all three marginal centre moments, the luck just fell the way of the brilliant Kiwi centres, but even then it wasn’t quite enough to see them home.
READ MORE: Springboks leave it late to down All Blacks in epic Ellis Park showdown