'It's opened the door': All Blacks wary of teams using Springbok blueprint

With all eyes on the Rugby World Cup opening match between hosts France and the All Blacks, the New Zealand side are keen to move on from the historic defeat South Africa handed them just two weeks ago.

Heading into the Twickenham Test, the All Blacks’ biggest-ever losing margin was 21 points, a deficit suffered twice at the hands of the Wallabies on Australian soil – both also in World Cup years (2019 and 1999).

The 35-7 dismantling inflicted by the Springboks comfortably took the crown as the heaviest defeat New Zealand have ever suffered and put an end to the team’s 11-game unbeaten run.

A historic loss just two weeks out from a Rugby World Cup has invalidated New Zealand’s title aspirations in the eyes of some. But the beating, within the context of the match, didn’t stress All Blacks head coach Ian Foster. That’s not to say he enjoys being reminded of it.

“It was a beautiful day out there, I woke up really happy this morning, went for a lovely walk and now you’ve asked me about that again,” Foster smirked when asked for an updated reflection on the match.

“First lesson: Have 15 men on the field. When you lose an experienced guy who has been your power player and you lose him from your pack then you do become very vulnerable.

“That’s one key lesson and it’s going to be one key lesson going into the World Cup that we all know but we’ve just got to make sure that we really work hard on the discipline side of our game to keep it 15 on 15.

“If we’ve got 15 on 15 I’m very confident in that space.

“What we had to do was we had to adapt to a strategy, we had Josh Lord come on, we had Tamaiti Williams, we had Fletcher Newell; Fletcher hasn’t played much rugby this year, Tamaiti’s only played a couple of test matches and there’s some massive learning going on there.

“The speed in which you have to react against a very experienced Springbok team, and they utilised their front and their back particularly well. They only had one lineout maul go through us, so they were smart and they were smart against a team with a red card.

“So the lessons are pretty simple, to be honest. I don’t think there’s anything there that we don’t really know, we’ve just got to get better and better.

“But it’s certainly, it’s opened the door for others to come and try to exploit that and we’ve got to make sure we respond.”

Improved discipline and set-piece strength will be essential if the Kiwis are to match up against the French, who will be cheered on by an 80,000-strong contingent of Les Bleus fanatics.

Forwards coach Jason Ryan echoed the sentiment shared by Foster, emphasising the impact of the red card and the experience of the young players who saw extended minutes.

The coaches and captain again voiced their view that the Springboks were throwing their jumpers across the lineout and landing “on top” of the New Zealand pack.

Ultimately, they say it’s up to themselves to adapt to the game.

“We’ve got to make some shifts and clearly adapt around a few things,” Ryan said.

“We’ve got to be a bit smarter around that area.”