The only All Black who remembers losing to the Springboks in New Zealand
There will be motivation aplenty for both teams tomorrow when the All Blacks face the Springboks at Albany, but the most motivated of all might be the only guy in the All Blacks team who remembers what it is like to lose to South Africa in New Zealand.
They’ve pretty much all gone now, by way of retirement or fresh pastures or injury – both physical and emotional. They were the All Blacks who lost to South Africa 32-29 in Hamilton, and who watched on as the visitors held aloft the Freedom Cup and the Tri-Nations title. It was 2009, in between the angst of the 2007 Rugby World Cup exit and the elation of the 2011 Rugby World Cup victory. It was an in-between time, as it is now.
Six of that side – Tony Woodcock, Richie McCaw, Kieran Read, Dan Carter, Ma’a Nonu and Mils Muliaina – would go on to win 100 caps for their country, before hanging up the boots or heading abroad. Some joined the diaspora early, while others stuck around and got their hands on Wiremu. It was a team that had a world champion spine, and yet for all the class it boasted, it was a team that still fell short on the scoresheet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rK4PORUTb2w
On that day, the All Blacks were harangued at every turn by a fearsome South African pack, and shellshocked by the field gun boot of Francois Steyn. They lost their lineouts and dropped their passes. They still managed to come within one scoring play of denying the Springboks back to back wins in New Zealand, that has to be acknowledged, but they were defeated in the end. Schalk Burger popped his rib that day, and left the field giggling.
Only one All Black from that game remains in the side to play tomorrow. As luck would have it, that player is the skipper Kieran Read. You can be he has not forgotten that occasion. Across from him that day were the likes of Burger, and Ryan Kankowski and Pierre Spies and Heinrich Brussow – each an exemplar of their particular area of expertise in the loose. They were by turns frightening and lightning. Their modern day equivalents – especially Siya Kolisi and Jean-Luc du Preez – have hallmarks of their forebears.
It was a Springbok victory built upon constant pressure, and a home team performance that in many ways is mirrored the mixed bag thus far served up by the All Blacks in 2017. There have been moments of genuine sublimity, but many more moments of uncharacteristic chaos, as if two axioms are at war within the All Blacks strategy – he who hesitates may well be lost, but surely less haste, more speed is required.
it was chaotic in 2009 in that match in Hamilton, and Read well knows that there must be calmness instilled in this team for the Albany test, and that he must be the one to instil it. The All Blacks say success is a lousy teacher, but home defeat is a schoolyard bully which taunts its victims and burdens them with a grudge that can last for many years. It has likely gnawed away at Read for the last eight of them. He will not wish to relive that feeling.
It seems crazy to think that he alone carries the memory of that last home defeat into this test match. Of that 2009 team only Read, Owen Franks and Jerome Kaino remain, and the latter duo are currently sidelined. It is Read’s burden this weekend, as is the leadership of a team that has at times been the Fourth of July, at others a damp box of firecrackers.
Read has stated publicly that the All Blacks will be on guard on Saturday night. Though South Africa’s fortunes have fluctuated far more wildly than those of the New Zealanders over recent years, the deep and abiding respect between these two great foes has remained the one true constant in the southern hemisphere.
The All Blacks humiliated the Springboks in Durban last year, but that will feel like a lifetime ago for the New Zealanders once the whistle blows this weekend. For Kieran Read, that result in 2009 will come to him as a whispered conversation from yesterday. And he will understand each word.
Of course, there is one thing he can feel good about. He may well remember the last time the All Blacks lost at home to the Springboks, but there is not one man on the other side of Saturday’s contest who can say they know what it is like to beat the All Blacks on New Zealand soil. Read will be desperate to make sure that’s the way it remains, for one more year at least.
Comments on RugbyPass
To me TJ is clearly the best 9 in the competition right now but he's also a proven player off the bench, there's few playmaking players who can come off the bench as calm and settled as he is, Beauden can, TJ can and I doubt any of the scrumhalves in contention can, if they want to experiment with new 9s I want him on the bench ready to step in if they crumble under the pressure. The Boks put their best front row on the bench, I'd like to see us take a similar approach, the Hurricanes have been doing similar things with players like Kirifi.
30 Go to commentsROG has better chance to win a WC if he starts training and make himself eligible as a player. He won’t make the Ireland squad but I reckon he may get close with Namibia (needs to improve his Afrikaans) or Portugal. Both sides had 1000:1 odds to win the RWC in 2023 which is an improvement on ROG’s odds of winning a RWC as a coach. Unlike Top 14 teams, national teams can’t go shopping and buy the best players - you work with the available talent pool and turn them into world beaters.
2 Go to commentsthat backline nope that backline is terrible why would you have sevu Reece when he’s not even top 5 wingers in the comp why have Blackadder when there’s better players no Scott barret isn’t an automatic the guy is more of a liability than anything why have him there when you have samipeni who’s far far better
30 Go to commentsAh, good to find you Nick. Agree with everything about Cale. So much to like about his game
49 Go to commentsNot too bad. Questions at 6, lock and HB for me. The ABs will be a lot stronger once Jordan and Roigard return. Also, work needs to be made to secure Frizzell back for next season and maybe also Mo’unga; they’re just wasting time playing in japan
30 Go to commentsOn the title, i wonder for many of those people it is a case something like a belief in working smarter, not harder?
1 Go to commentsForget Sotutu. One of those whose top level is Super Rugby. Id take a punt on Wallace Sititi Finau ahead of Glass body Blackadder.
30 Go to commentsI’m a pensioner so I've been around a bit. My opinion of SBW is he is an elite athlete and a great New Zealander and roll model. He has been to the top and knows what he's talking about. To all the negative comments regarding SBW the typical New Zealand way, cut that tall poppy down.
17 Go to commentsI'm not listening to a guy moralise over others when this is the guy who walked out mid season on Canterbury RLFC when he had a contract with them, what a hypocrite. Those praising him are a joke.
17 Go to commentsI’d put Finau at 6 instead of Blackadder but that’s the only change I’d make. Can’t wait to see who Razor picks.
30 Go to commentsTamati Williams, Codie Taylor, and Same Cane? Not sure about Hoskins Sotutu at test level. Wasn’t that impressive last season. Need a balance between experience and talent/youth.
30 Go to commentsInteresting insight. Fantastic athlete, and a genuine human being.
17 Go to commentsThey played at night in Suva last weekend and it’s an afternoon game forecast for 19 degrees in Canberra this weekend. Heat change is a non issue.
1 Go to commentsWishing Rosie a speedy recovery
1 Go to commentsObscene that SA haven’t been knocking
1 Go to commentsChances of Blackadder being injured seem too high to give him serious consideration. ABs loosie combination finally looked good with 2 committed to tackling and clearing rucks in the centre and Ardie roaming. Hoskins/Ardie together would force one of them into where they don’t excel and don’t get to use their talent, or require a change in tactics. If we continue to evolve last years systems I would take Papali’i and Finau at 6 and 7 (conceding that Blackadder will be injured) and Ardie at 8.
30 Go to commentsArdie’s preferred position 7? Where do they get these writers from? I've no idea where he's playing in Japan, but the previous two seasons he wore the 7 jersey exactly twice.
17 Go to commentsNot good to hear Ulster described as “financially troubled”. Did not think it was getting to that level. I would hope the Irish system of spreading players of talent away from Leinster would kick in now. Better to have a Leinster fringe player with Ulster or Connacht, then getting only a few games a season in Dublin. 10, for example, would seem to be a case for spreading the talent. I would not be at all adverse to a SA man coming in as head coach/DR. Ludeke is worth trying. Certainly got a long and impressive coaching career at this level…..149 games in SR, then Japan, 30 years experience. And Ulster’s ledger of successful SA coaches and players is on the positive side. Is talk of Ruan Pienaar interested in coming back as a coach…..could be a good combination with Ludeke. And Pienaar and family would have no settling in to do, one would judge. He loved life in Ulster when there, by all reports.
1 Go to commentsSome thoughts to consider here, Sam. Thanks
2 Go to commentsI think he is right, SBW is respected in RSA. The guy who never stood up is a worm. Sseems lots of NZ SBW hate, you do the crime do the time.
17 Go to comments