Wallace Sititi details All Blacks' halftime message before 36-point collapse

All Blacks No. 8 Wallace Sititi says it was a “tough feeling” walking off the park in Wellington on Saturday night, and that feeling was in stark contrast with how his side felt heading into the sheds at halftime.

With 40 minutes played at Sky Stadium, the hosts were nursing a three-point lead and feeling positive, according to Sititi. The 2024 Breakthrough Player of the Year spoke with reporters after the match and offered an insight into what the messages were in the sheds midway through the Test.

At that point, the All Blacks had managed just 29 per cent territory, struggling mightily to exit their own half. And yet, with so little opportunity, they were the side putting the most points on the board early.

“We felt really good,” Sititi started. “We felt like we didn’t have much ball, but we felt like when we did, we capitalised on our moments. When we held onto the ball, I think we felt very dangerous. We spoke about starting well; obviously, that didn’t happen tonight. But full credit to the Springboks.”

Part of the All Blacks’ implosion was a scrappy performance at lineout time. The hosts won just 69 per cent of their own lineouts, from 13 throws. While there were still some classy disruptions in their defensive lineout efforts, Sititi said his side would go back to the drawing board to amend their errors.

“Look, we just weren’t functioning as a team there, as a forward pack. We’ll go back and look at the tape, but it probably wasn’t good enough. We take full credit there, as a team. We’ll go back to the drawing board, and we’ll keep working on it.”

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The loss comes seven days after New Zealand beat South Africa in Auckland, a remarkable turnaround in such a short period of time.

The All Blacks missed 46 tackles in the rematch, more than twice their tally from a week ago, despite making 30 fewer attempts. Sititi again gave his opponents their flowers and acknowledged his side’s need to step up following last week’s win, a need that was left unfulfilled in Wellington.

“Full credit to the Springboks, we knew they’d respond, especially after last week. We just didn’t react to it as we wanted to, and we paid the price.”

The day following last Saturday’s Auckland win, All Blacks forwards coach Jason Ryan fronted the media at the airport and was asked if he was expecting a response from the Springboks. His reply was, “I’m expecting a response from us”.

The coach had the same attitude later in the week when speaking with the radio station Sport Nation, emphasising how important resting after such an emotional win was. All Blacks head coach Scott Robertson said after the Wellington loss that he couldn’t attribute the result to a fault in mentality, given he hadn’t noted any such faults during the week of preparation.

Sititi, though, repeated the notion that his side didn’t lift the way they needed to.

“Every loss in an All Blacks jersey is tough; this one will be up there with all of the ones that I remember the most. Like I said, full credit to Rassie and his men, they played really well tonight and we just didn’t respond as well as we wanted to.”