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Andrew Mehrtens 'surprised' by unexpected weakness in Boks' display
By Josh Raisey
Though South Africa came away with a narrow 31-27 win over the All Blacks at Emirates Airline Park on Saturday, former New Zealand No10 Andrew Merhtens feels Scott Robertsonās side will be ātaking a lot of positivesā from their performance.
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Both sides will head into a rematch in Cape Town on Saturday with plenty of belief from what they produced in Johannesburg.
The world champions may have got the victory, but it was far from a convincing performance, particularly in the first half. It was actually a display that āsurprisedā Mehrtens, particularly with regard to the Springboksā defence.
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The All Blacks great was a guest on RugbyPass TVās Boks Office this week, where he said the Springbok defence was ānot as cohesive or robust as I expectedā.
The Boksā ferocious defence has been the foundation of their consecutive World Cup triumphs, but it was uncharacteristically porous against their arch-rivals in round three of the Rugby Championship. Caleb Clarkeās opening try was an example of how the All Blacks across the board were able to make ground easily, albeit from turnover ball.
But it was not just in the tight quarters that the Boksā defence underachieved in Mehrtensā eyes, but also their inability to stop the visitors spreading the ball wide.
āI was a bit surprised that the defence was not as cohesive or robust as I expected,ā the 70-cap All Black said.
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āAnd that might just be the changes in players, the changes in roles or whatever. But the All Blacks were better at trying to punch holes against that defence than they were against Argentina, for example.
āThey used stepping, Codie Taylor was a good example, rather than just thumping into the body, a bit of a step, get on a weak side and get a little bit past the contact zone. But I did feel South Africa wasnāt as tight in that defence as I expected and the All Blacks got a bit more go-forward a bit more easily than they might have anticipated.
āNone of us expected the All Blacks to get around the outside of the Boks like they did. The best and most stable midfield in the world ā [Damian] de Allende and [Jesse] Kriel ā then youāve got those fantastic wingers with all the pace and itās been hard to get around the outside of the Boks. So the All Blacks did that really well. So theyāll be taking a lot of positives.ā
Like Rassie says 'take them to the gutter' when they try to 'take you to the dance floor'
Positives like blowing a 10 point lead!. DMac going over time to kick conversions. Making wrong passing decisions. There are certainly positives. I feel NZ Rugby has dropped standards in a lot of ways and it has affected their game. Rebuild yes, but don't bloody take 30 years!
AB's have always been the best team in the world ball in hand. The French when they have their tails up can rival them and the Welsh teams of old showed the way. The outcome of the game last week to me was a "non-result". Either team could have won and as a SA supporter I wouldn't have felt at all aggrieved by our performance, even if we lost. It was a typical SA vs AB's game, in the mood no defence can stop the AB's, in the mood our direct physical game does make teams wilt. Can't wait for this week
Springboks conceded a try off turnover ball from a knock on in their half that went out the back and gifted the AB's an easy shift and score which the rush was powerless to resist. Then an intercept is impossible to defend against and a maul try was well worked by the All Blacks with a touch of truck and trailer there. The one try when they got around us was at set piece and that was unacceptable because it was first phase ball. There were several other occassions where they got around the rush but couldnt beat the cover. In the end the Boks gave away from soft tries. They will have to do better if they wanna win this week in CT
I agree. Two of the tries were not due to the ABs beating the Bok defence. The intercept for sure, the turnover after BJDs error was well exploited but the defence was disorganised at that point. The Boks should cut out those errors, in this game alone it resulted in 14 easy points to the opposition
I wonder whether they were anticipating the dinks over the top of midfield, that kept the defense a bit narrow leaving them exposed when the All Blacks did go wide? That was my immediate thought.