Post Match Observations - All Blacks vs Boks

·         The penultimate match-winning movement was down to Dyani's rush defence tackle causing Mckensie to knock the ball on forward. 

·         The Springboks combinations appear to be improving, and the defensive appears to be getting better as a result. 

SprSpringboks fitness levels were good enough to defend with 14 players. Only 1 driving try scored in his time off the field. The Lions players, in particular, looked fresh in the last 20 minutes, when the All Blacks.

TThThe pile tackling was good when prevented the All Blacks pick and drive from the line having any effect. 

BoTThe Boks did not compete at lineouts in the last 30 minutes, presumably to prevent the drive. However, this seemed to let the All Blacks back into the game more. 

·         Jaws was missed, with the tap downs at the lineout a bit clumsy- and this is a key area to put pressure on the All Blacks

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JanJantjies had his best Bok Test to date. 

       TThe Pollard Jantjies axis may be worth continuing, to also get Willemse onto the bench for test experience. At least Pollard is a test standard test centre - but I can't say the same about Delande or Esterhuizen.

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·         All Blacks driving play has improved vastly, after many years it was not used at all. The All Blacks are also better at defending the driving maul.

·         Frans Malherbe is getting into good form.

·         Whitely is finally looking like a test player but still needs to get more involved ball in hand. 

·         Beuden Barrett hit the pole twice, albeit does not appear to be a test level pole kicker. He is the best 15-man rugby flyhalf ever, but question mark around his ability to play 10-man rugby in a close test match like a world cup final. 

·         Damien Mckensie is a much better option than Jordie and is a better kicker than Beuden Barrett. 

·         The Match Villains:

·         Francious Louw also buggered up the match I with a comical knock on in the 76th minute. 

·         TJ Perrerana lacks pace and should have scored near the death to at least equal the test match. He should have scored and won the match in the 65th minute. His responses seemed a bit slow at the lineout tap downs, and questions marks exist if he is the right backup to Aaron Smith

I agree with pretty much everything. I'd say though that the attack was much closer to the second Puma test. We were rash to rubbish that performance as a whole. This time, those opportunities were taken. 

There are some things I want to review later. Especially on defence. Whatever the outcome, I'll say that it was nice to finally see some resilience. How long has it been? We have something here. 

A lot being said about the missed from Barret and also the drop goal opportunity. https://www.rugbypass.com/news/springboks-all-blacks-classic-was-an-imperfect-cliffhanger-with-what-ifs-from-both-sides

What a scoring opportunity highlighted in that article, Xavi. Another instance worth mentioning is McKenzie failing to release Ioane during one attack towards the end of the game when Ioane had space along the touchline with again only Kolbe in a possible tackling position. McKenzie held on, opportunity lost. I would back Ioane to score in that situation 9/10 times.

All Blacks certainly had plenty of opportunity for a drop goal from right in front, just like in 2007 against France. Seems like there's some kind of stigma attached to drop goals in NZ, as high risk as it would be because if it misses it's game over.

I thought the Boks did incredibly well with a disrupted backline to hold on. The rush defense worked well and the All Blacks never really looked like they had an answer for it. Beauden Barrett came across as very passive the whole game, he was basically just a link as I mentioned in the live thread.

I'm not convinced about Pollard at 12 - although strangely enough his tackling may be less of an issue there than at 10 as 10 tends to catch more of the heat as an attack channel. Jantjies did well but that doesn't suddenly erase his long history of blunders and implodes.

This was certainly one of the most intriguing test matches in a long time. Finally a game actually worth analyzing and mulling over.