Brad Weber, Angus Ta’avao and Mils Muliaina on what cost New Zealand the third Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry Test and what it will take to level the series in Baltimore.
The former All Blacks on Sky Sport’s The Breakdown dissected the Springboks’ 29-24 win at FNB Stadium that has the Kiwis staring down a 3-1 defeat on Saturday.
“It started with the scrums,” Weber said. “We were really good on our own ball, but as soon as the scrum went to the Springboks, that’s where they won four scrum penalties.
“We’re a team that needs to keep the ball in play against the Boks. We need to run them off their feet, and as soon as we give them easy opportunities to get back to their scrum and lose the ball in crucial moments, that’s when we put ourselves under pressure.”
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Ta’avao traced the damage to the handling that preceded those set-pieces.
“When you look at the error rate, South Africa actually had 13 drop balls – 11 to 13 drop balls. New Zealand had seven,” he said.
“From those seven, there were four scrum penalties. We had 11 scrums and we didn’t make the most of those penalties from the scrum.”
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The 22-cap prop added: “I looked at a clip and it was a penalty, and you could just see the body language from the All Blacks was almost like, ‘Oh, here we go again’.
“People talk about parity but your mindset shouldn’t be about getting parity. It’s about trying to dominate and attack that set-piece. And South Africa, that’s what they do … This is the best scrum in the world at the moment.
“They’ve set that standard over the last couple of years, but we’ve still got time. Obviously, this cost us a series [win] here, but we’ll be back.”
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Muliaina focused on the bigger picture: “This is where South Africa are really good; they don’t mind pressure. They absorb it.
“We’re not sitting here saying South Africa are easily better than us. We’ve closed the gap. And sometimes I think, as the general public, we don’t give the South Africans enough credit. Nine years that made this team.”
Photo: Lefty Shivambu/Gallo Images
The post Former All Blacks: Boks thrive on pressure appeared first on SA Rugby magazine.
Brad Weber, Angus Ta’avao and Mils Muliaina on what cost New Zealand the third Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry Test and what it will take to level the series in Baltimore.
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