Scott Robertson praises the 'spiritual leader' within the All Blacks

Ardie Savea’s late turnover proved to be enough to get the All Blacks over the line at Eden Park against the Springboks on Saturday, showcasing the type of player he has been for New Zealand over 100 Tests in the black jersey.

Scott Robertson’s men weren’t perfect on a night full of box kicks and handling errors, but two quick tries to start the Eden Park encounter helped the All Blacks overcome a late comeback by Rassie Erasmus’ side.

The All Blacks have celebrated two experienced player reaching 100 Test caps in the past two games, with both Codie Taylor and Ardie Savea joining the list of 13 others as the only players to have played 100 Tests for New Zealand.

Robertson, who admits he didn’t sit down much during the match, explains that Savea’s turnover at the end exemplified the kind of person he is.

“Well i didn’t sit down, I was just so pleased. It just sort of epitomised who he is really, he’s a person that makes big plays and it just sums him up beautifully, it was his moment on the 100th.

“A guy that’s so mentally and physically tough, and just so much resilience and he just keeps getting up and it did reflect the Test match.

“I thought, his ability to go between seven and eight and carry the ball and hunt with the ball, and his tackles, and then jumping at the lineout, and look just his overall performance probably affected the whole 100 games.”

All Blacks captain Scott Barrett was proud of the way his team played for New Zealand’s newest centurion, saying that this performance was what this team needed going forward.

“Yeah, I’m personally proud of the way that the rest of the 23 guys fronted up for Ardie, he’s a spiritual leader within our team,  so we wanted to make that special,” Barrett told reporters at Eden Park on Saturday.

“So the performance reflected that, and we need to go again next week.”

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Barrett adds that the moment they got together this week in Auckland, they fronted up and owned the difficult conversations regarding what happened in Argentina.

“Off the back of the Argentina week and a week at home, there was certainly a lot of self reflection, individually, on how we can get better and we fronted up from day one when we rejoined in Auckland with what we needed, and a performance this week against a world class team in South Africa.”