Springboks tipped to sweep All Blacks in next month's Rugby Championship

The Springboks have been tipped by a Kiwi pundit to whitewash the All Blacks in their two Rugby Championship matches in South Africa next month.

South Africa will host New Zealand across two tests in Nelspruit and Johannesburg in August in what will be the opening matches of the Rugby Championship for both teams.

The Springboks head into the first two matches of their campaign on the back of a series win over Wales, which they secured with a comfortable 30-14 victory in Cape Town over the weekend.

Ardie Savea and Dane Coles speak to media after All Blacks loss to Ireland

Ardie Savea and Dane Coles speak to media after All Blacks loss to Ireland

By contrast, the All Blacks head into the Rugby Championship in disarray on the back of a historic series defeat at the hands of Ireland on Saturday.

Their 32-22 defeat in Wellington came a week after they lost to Ireland in New Zealand for the first time in their history, leaving the All Blacks with just one win from their last five tests.

Slumping to their worst-ever World Rugby ranking of fourth place, immense public pressure is mounting on All Blacks head coach Ian Foster to leave his position at the helm of the national side.

After labelling the series defeat as “not acceptable” on Sunday, New Zealand Rugby chief executive Mark Robinson has undertaken a review into the unprecedented series defeat.

The outcome of the review is expected to be known by Wednesday as speculation continues to swirl about Foster’s future as All Blacks boss.

So stark is the contrast between the fortunes of the Springboks and All Blacks during the July test window that Sky Sport presenter Ross Karl has predicted a clean sweep of the Kiwis by South Africa on August 6 and August 13.

Speaking as a panellist on the Aotearoa Rugby Pod, Karl said it’s “hard to imagine that it’s going to be anything other than 2-0 to South Africa” given the strength of the Springboks and the current state of affairs within the All Blacks.

“They’ve kept a beautiful balance from the last World Cup, haven’t they?” Karl said of the make-up of the Springboks squad that beat Wales in two of their three tests over the past few weeks.

“They’ve added some players, given them some chances. [Springboks fullback Damien] Willemse looks like a real threat in international rugby now.

“He seems to have found his feet, but [Springboks first-five Handre] Pollard – and we talk a lot about [Ireland first-five and captain Johnny] Sexton – shows what that kind of experience brings to a team, the leadership.

“I really enjoyed how he took it to the line maybe a bit more than we’ve seen from him recently and showed some options there.

“They’ve just got a really strong team and, week-on-week, they are a contender against any side in the world.

“Against New Zealand in South Africa, against a New Zealand team that’s finding its feet, I find it hard to imagine that it’s going to be anything other than 2-0 to South Africa right now.”

If the All Blacks are to avoid defeat against the Springboks, former Crusaders and Maori All Blacks halfback Bryn Hall said it was crucial that New Zealand negate the threat posed by South Africa’s lineout.

In order to do that, Hall said the All Blacks must be disciplined and make good decisions on defence, particularly within their own 22.

“For me, the two areas for the All Blacks is the defensive systems they’re going to need when it comes to lineout maul and getting that right,” Hall told the Aotearoa Rugby Pod.

“They’re going to get opportunities to get down there, they’re going to get opportunities to go to their lineout maul. It’s being able to defend that, and then to make good decisions like the English do.

“Tackle choice and being able to get the low chop and someone on the ball to be able to do a double shoulder and win that contact area even more, but then also get penalties and being able to slow down the ball, and be disciplined when we get into that 22-metre zone because, South Africans, that’s their money.

“That’s where they score their points and that’s where they’ll look to go for the All Blacks, for sure, in their two test matches.”

Karl added that he believes the All Blacks need a change within their coaching set-up, noting that incoming selector Joe Schmidt could replace Foster as a supervising coach for the Rugby Championship.

He said that would enable highly-successful Crusaders head coach Scott Robertson, widely seen as Foster’s successor as All Blacks boss, plenty of time to take the reins of the national side on a full-time basis ahead of the end-of-year tour.

“When I look at the timeline and you think there’s two weeks until they go to South Africa,” Karl told the Aotearoa Rugby Pod.

“There’s no way you’re going to overhaul the entire management team in that time, so you’re either going to back Ian Foster for another crack in the Rugby Championship, or you’re going to bring in a supervising coach who’s going to oversee Ian Foster’s team right now because you just can’t do that from an employment standpoint in two weeks.

“I think you get to the end of the Rugby Championship and you make your big decision. It’s got to change. My personal perspective is that it probably will change.

“Whether you throw Scott Robertson to the wolves now is a hard one because he’s going to have a year-and-a-bit with a team that’s not progressing. He’s going to have to make some big changes.

“We saw Michael Cheika do that and take the Wallabies to a 2015 final, we saw Rassie Erasmus do that and take the Springboks to a World Cup title, but I wonder whether you’re better off to chuck someone experienced like Joe Schmidt in the meantime, and then give Razor the job off the back of the World Cup so he’s got time to build what he needs to build.

“They seem like the options to me. It’s hard, when you look at what’s happened over the last five or six test matches, not to think that there needs to be a complete change of thinking here, and it’s not working. It’s just impossible to ignore that point.”