'We felt the pressure': Cobus Reinach flags All Blacks tactics

South Africa scrum-half Cobus Reinach has admitted that his side “felt the pressure” the All Blacks exerted as they fell 33-16 in the first Test of Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series.

The veteran scrum-half, who will start this week in Cape Town after coming on from the bench at Ellis Park, spoke specifically about the way Dave Rennie’s side attacked the breakdown, with both Reinach and Grant Williams, whom he replaced, harassed by the All Blacks forwards all match.

That pressure told early in the second half when Fabian Holland charged down Williams, leading to the score that gave the All Blacks a lead they never relinquished. Reinach himself was yellow carded in the final quarter of the match for an intentional knock-on at the back of a scrum, which the 36-year-old said was a byproduct of the pressure that “made us do things that led to my yellow card.”

“They put us under pressure and made us do things that led to my yellow card,” he said when speaking to the media ahead of the second Test. “But it’s now up to us to work on that and see how we can defend certain things better or make better plans.

“The review after a loss is never good, but it’s learnings, and as long as we take the lessons and grow as a team, we will be in a good place.”

Fixture

Internationals

South Africa

08:10

29 Aug 26

New Zealand

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South Africa coughed up possession a staggering 23 times in Johannesburg, which is probably the most telling indicator of why they ended up on the wrong side of the scoreboard.

Reinach shed light on how New Zealand exerted that pressure at the breakdown, but said he did not think the visitors specifically targeted the scrum-halves.

“I don’t think they targeted us as individuals as No 9s, they went after our breakdowns quite hard and tried to slow down the ball with throwing their legs and other things,” said Reinach.

“We felt the pressure and we knew we had to get the ball out somehow, and we have to work out ways around it. When we train, we try to emulate that, and try to figure out ways in which we can improve.”