'That was interesting with Rassie, something you don't often see': Victor Matfield

Former South Africa captain Victor Matfield has highlighted the difference between the two benches in the All Blacks‘ 33-16 win over the Springboks at Ellis Park on Saturday, saying “we didn’t see the impact of the Bomb Squad for the first time” in the first Test of Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry.

New Zealand won the second half in Johannesburg 21-3, with six of South Africa’s eight substitutes failing to see their side score a point while they were on the field. After experiencing initial success in the scrum, loosehead Gerhard Steenekamp was taken off 20 minutes after coming on for Jan-Hendrik Wessels. Likewise, despite scoring a try after replacing Kurt-Lee Arendse in the first half, Andre Esterhuizen was replaced in the second half.

Outside of that pair, the much-vaunted South African bench failed to maintain the domination in certain departments that the starters had enjoyed, particularly at the scrum. Additionally, both Cobus Reinach and Marco van Staden were yellow-carded in the final quarter, reducing the world champions to 13 players as they chased the game.

Speaking on his Rugby Rivals podcast, Matfield identified that as one of two out-of-character facets of the Springboks’ performance, as well as their decisions to go for three points rather than tries, which ultimately meant they failed to build a big enough lead.

The 2007 World Cup winner believes that the instruction from head coach Rassie Erasmus was a sign that the Springboks “felt that pressure a little bit.”

Fixture

Internationals

South Africa

08:10

29 Aug 26

New Zealand

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“One thing that was interesting with me with Rassie this weekend, and that’s something you don’t often see, is South Africa went for the three points, New Zealand went for the five/seven. Then we went for the three points, you went for the five/seven. And normally we see South Africa being so confident, and I think we probably just felt that pressure a little bit. And then when we were three points up, then we went for the three scrums, we got turned over.

“And the second thing for me was we didn’t see the impact of the Bomb Squad for the first time. All the subs came on, but it wasn’t like, ‘Here’s the four guys, they’re coming together.’ So I think that’s something where we felt the guys on the field were a little bit of a step ahead of the guys on the bench, where in the old days it was a 50/50. We’re going to keep both equal. Even if you’re playing well, these guys are coming on; they’re coming fresh.

“So I think in that second half, where we normally see four, five forwards coming on, having an impact, we didn’t have that. And somehow I think the impact of the New Zealand players was better in the second half.”