'They panicked': Ex-All Black criticises mental breakdown against Springboks

Following a huge victory to keep the Eden Park unbeaten streak alive last weekend, it was always going to be a tough challenge for the All Blacks to back it up against the back-to-back World Champions, the Springboks.

The All Blacks led 10-7 at halftime at Sky Stadium in Wellington, but All Blacks head coach Scott Robertson and his coaching staff couldn’t have imagined a worse second 40 minutes, letting in 36 unanswered points to finish without the Freedom Cup once again.

Three former All Blacks, who have all played their fair share of games against the Springboks, sat down to discuss what was a disappointing performance from the Kiwis.

100-Test All Black centurion Mils Muliaina feels like when the visitors started to gain momentum, Robertson’s men lacked leadership and direction.

“To your point, I think the alignment between the coaches and the leadership group, like what was the plan? They often talk about trying to win those moments back, we had no momentum in that second half,” Muliaina said on The Breakdown on Sky Sport.

“They needed to come up with a plan, the leaders on the field to go, hey, we’ve got to get seven points. That’s all we’re going after right now and if there’s seven minutes left in the game, that extra seven points that we’re going for, it now becomes a game.

“Then as the game wore on, it almost seemed they panicked.”

When asked what kind of response the All Blacks coaching staff will need in order to rectify this result in the coming weeks, former All Black first-five Aaron Cruden believes that the messaging from the top needs to be clearer.

“That sort of alignment between the coaches and the leadership group, which then trickles down to the rest of the playing group for the on field adjustments, is what I would say,” Cruden said on The Breakdown.

“Because you asked, do we have the squad right now, and I think we do, because you think about the first half performance, it was all there, we have had patches this year where they’ve been outstanding, but then the second half, to me, they just tightened up.

“We couldn’t build any pressure, we were too inaccurate and a lot of things that you’ve just mentioned there, Mils, but I think we’re all accountable, when good teams are rolling, everyone’s accountable.

“That alignment needs to obviously trickle from the top all the way down.”

For former All Black halfback and current Sky Sports commentator Justin Marshall, he’s more worried about how other teams are becoming more innovative with their replacements.

“We’ve shown a real reluctance to be innovative with our bench. We don’t want to deviate from five, three split and we want to stick with that,” Marshall said.

“Now look, obviously you lose your half back early in the Test match then that justifies that, because then you’re putting pressure on those back reserves. But we’ve never wanted to throw four players on at once like Rassie does.

“It’s thinking outside of the box and we seem very regimented in providing impact, whereas it seems like the opposition, who are wearing us down in those 20 minutes have thought more precisely about where they can influence the game, putting those guys on the field.”