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'We dominated them': Ex-Bok captain Matfield not worried about losing All Blacks series
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Former Springbok captain Victor Matfield is not worried about losing the Greatest Rivalry series to New Zealand after going down 1-0 in the first Test at Ellis Park in Johannesburg.
The 2007 World Cup winner didn’t see enough from New Zealand to suggest that they would win two or three Test matches, while he was confident that the Springboks dominated the game at the set piece and in attack.
Matfield believed that if they take their opportunities to score, the Springboks will win.
“I don’t know. I’m not as worried as everyone else,” he said on SuperSport’s Final Whistle show.
“We dominated the scrums and second half we dominated the lineout.
“Attacking, we actually did better on attack between the 22 meters lines. Our defence, they never threw anything at us from set pieces from far out that we thought ‘quick throws, they’re going to put us wide, wide’. That never happened.
“It was all about, we had our opportunities in the first half. There was three opportunities we didn’t score.”
Matfield put New Zealand’s victory down to winning the big moments which came from players like Cam Roigard, who finished with two try assists, to get them ahead.
The 127-Test veteran had praise for how the All Blacks capitalised on their 22 entries.
“They were really good when they got to the 22,” he said.
“We have to give that to them. I think a guy like Roigard’s unbelievable. So they do have special players that can play their big moments.
“But if you look at the game, I still think we dominated them. There was no time in the game where I felt this is a team that’s going to beat us two, three times in a row.”
The loss led to a change in the world rankings, with New Zealand moving up from number two to take the number one spot off South Africa.
South Africa will welcome back inspirational captain Siya Kolisi to the starting line-up for Cape Town after Erasmus made a number of changes.
Ex-Bok coach Nick Mallett believed that ‘World Cup selections’ will be on the line in the second Test.
“This will be the Test. Listen, this is going to be the test for a number of players,” he said.
“It’s one year out from the World Cup again; a lot of them still want to go to the World Cup. This is a big challenge.
“You’re playing the best team in the world now; they jumped ahead of us.
“You’re playing a very, very good team four times in a row, and you have to show your personality and your character.
“If we don’t, then Rassie has players that can step up. So this is a massive challenge for this group of players.”
