The five moments that cost the All Blacks in Soweto

The All Blacks had plenty of chances in the third Test in South Africa to claim a historic 2-1 result on South African soil.

After going up by 12-5 in the first half and 17-12 in the second half, the game was for the taking but a number of key opportunities lost didn’t build the required buffer on the scoreboard.

Dave Rennie’s side continually turn one error into a handful, leading to huge momentum swings against them. Their inability to effectively win restarts was a huge issue in this series.

Sam Darry on All Blacks’ plan to stop Boks’ maul

Sam Darry on All Blacks’ plan to stop Boks’ maul

Here are five big moments that cost the All Blacks in the 29-24 loss to the Springboks in the third Test.

Tupou Vaa’i’s big miss – 14th minute

The towering lock had a golden opportunity to make South Africa pay after the All Blacks forced a goal line restart following a brilliant kick by Leroy Carter down the left hand touchline.

The All Blacks had scored through Ardie Savea first with a 7-0 advantage at the time, and Vaa’i had the chance to make that 12-0 and potentially 14-0.

The shallow restart was not taken by South Africa, with Vaa’i getting two hands to the ball. The Springboks players overran the catch point, leaving Vaa’i with an open line 15 metres out.

Vaa’i had Peter Lakai right on his inside shoulder and the pair may have faced a cover tackle from Cobus Reinach, however, Vaa’i has enough power and speed to win that match up.

He dropped it cold, his second failed restart recovery off the game. An earlier kick off had been contested and resulted in a scrum to New Zealand.

The worst part is from the ensuing scrum South Africa won a penalty for an easy exit, which was followed by another penalty conceded by Ardie Savea counter-rucking from the side, followed by another penalty on a maul to Tyrel Lomax.

What could have been 14-0 became a Springboks’ 22 entry at the other end, while the five minutes remaining for Sacha Feinberg-Mgomenzulu’s sin bin evaporated with the All Blacks having no ball.

Ardie Savea’s injury – 30th minute

The All Blacks had put up a Cam Roigard box kick into South Africa’s half with Jordie Barrett going up to contest with Ethan Hooker. Neither won the contest and the bouncing ball found Mannie Libbok, who raced away on the counter. The Springboks went wide-wide and ran all the way down into the All Blacks’ 22.

Savea’s ruck contest spoiled good ball and forced a knock-on by Eben Etzebeth, sparing the All Blacks in the moment but it came at a huge cost. Marx’s cleanout gave Savea a dislocated shoulder and the All Blacks lost their captain.

While Wallace Sititi was arguably the All Blacks best forward after that, it wasn’t production that the All Blacks lost in that moment. It was their talismanic leader who breathes confidence into the All Blacks.

Savea’s ability as a playmaker is irreplaceable. His two tries taken from close range, highlight his vision and instinctual talent. He can take advantage of the slightest opportunity. It was his edge play that forced Feinberg-Mngomezulu’s yellow card. He stepped inside Hooker, drew in one more and offered the back hand flick to Lakai.

He threw the cutout pass to Leroy Carter to make the initial break before scooping up the scraps for his second try.

Savea is one-of-one and losing him was a costly moment.

Jesse Kriel’s knock on and Aumua stripped – 34th minute 

Centre Jesse Kriel dropped a pass stone cold giving the All Blacks a scrum 45 metres out. This was a significant momentum swing with the All Blacks holding a 12-5 lead. The All Blacks originally turned the ball over on their own five metre line, and then Kriel’s error gave them a launch platform inside the Boks half.

By the time the scrum packed there was only five minutes remaining in the half. It was crucial period to land the next blow and potentially go up by two scores headed into the half.

The scrum was rock solid and the All Blacks played the same way three times with Sititi punching over the gain line on the third carry.

On the switch back to the left they have a big openside set up. Roigard goes a little off the cuff and plays Vaa’i short. The rhythm is broken. The lock still finds Ruben Love, who hits Asafo Aumua with a hospital pass.

Aumua is jammed by Cobus Reinach making a snap read, but the hooker shrugs him off and gets upfield. Reinach comes back again and strips him of the ball which triggers a huge momentum shift.

One phase later Wiese punches through and offloads to Nche, who showed great skills to pull in the ball low. He finds Libbok, who cuts the defence all the way down to one metre from the line. Ruben Love is yellow carded. The Springboks push over for a penalty try from the scrum and it’s 12-all at half-time.

Aumua getting stripped cost the All Blacks massively; it triggered a defensive collapse, they lost a player to the bin and saw a hard-earned lead evaporate.

Sititi strip and Springboks caught offside – 42nd minute

Wallace Sititi flipped the game early in the second half when he stripped Feinberg-Mngomenzulu one-on-one of the ball and broke away downfield. The Springboks were penalised for being offside giving the All Blacks a golden opportunity to score first and early in the second half.

Turning down a shot at goal, the All Blacks attempt a maul from the 10 metres line before getting into their phase work. They tried a classic pet play back to the blindside where the No.14 pops up outside the hooker, this time Aumua.

Roigard cut out everyone to pass straight to the No.2 on the edge. The Boks’ D had it covered, so Jordan tried cutting inside. He coughed up possession for a knock-on in the tackle of Morne van der Berg.

It was another costly mistake inside the Boks’ 22. Aside from turning down three and wasting a chance to score, the Boks turned straight back to the scrum. George Bower is called for hinging and South Africa get another easy exit.

Will Jordan kicks dead – 63rd minute

Although Leroy Carter went from hero-to-zero in the space of 60 seconds after setting up the Jordan try with his missed tackle on Kriel, that wasn’t the moment the game was lost.

The Springboks had a slim lead 19-17 with the game in the balance for a while after that. There was still plenty of time to take back the lead.

One attacking possession by the All Blacks was lost to a Marx turnover when Sam Darry got caught isolated. From there, the All Blacks return serve and force a knock-on leading to a scrum.

The game is in balance with the All Blacks needing to exit well. They call for a winger’s kick, spreading it to the Jordan’s edge and he thumps it downfield. The kick goes dead, resulting in a scrum 35 metres out to the South Africans.

It was a fatal error. Again, with South Africa’s scrum machine in full flight they win another penalty, kick to the line and maul 20 metres on the All Blacks’ pack.

Not excusing the efforts of the pack who were demolished twice in quick succession, it’s Jordan’s momentum killing error that hands the Boks that opportunity. They go up 26-17 with 15 minutes to go, altering the probabilities of the game.

Of these five game-changing moments, four are preventable. Three are handling errors, and the other is a kick error.

These small moments can decide Test matches, but for Rennie it’s concerning just how quickly one error has turned into catastrophe during this series.

Currently the All Blacks are unable to compound good moments, while being very good at compounding bad moments.