Victor Matfield insists the Springboks were the superior side in the first Test at Ellis Park and were on the receiving end of some dubious refereeing decisions.
The Boks enjoyed long periods of possession and territory and created several try-scoring opportunities inside the All Blacks’ 22, but were only able to convert one.
A key moment in the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry opener came in the 55th minute when after opting three times to scrum from penalties, replacement loosehead prop Gerhard Steenekamp was penalised for walking around the scrum.
From there, momentum swung sharply and the All Blacks went on to claim a 33-16 victory.
“If you look at the game, I still believe the Boks were the better team,” Matfield said on the Rugby Rivals podcast, which also featured former All Blacks wing John Kirwan.
“But, especially for a team like the All Blacks growing now, that’s what you want to do. You want to go into games where you say, ‘How did we win this game?’ And they won it comfortably, to be honest.
“There were moments in the game where players stepped up and just made the right call at the right time. Nothing flashy, just the right thing. That’s what the All Blacks did.
“I must say, well done to you guys. You handled the storm, stood up and made great decisions, and you deserved to win that game.”
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Matfield, though, felt several calls from referee Matthew Carley in the second half compounded the Boks’ problems.
“Up until 55 [minutes], we were dominating and then there were probably about five calls in a row that just went unbelievably to the All Blacks.
“And it started at that scrum.
“Your No 1 went on the angle so badly and that’s why we just shifted away. Because No 1 went around the angle, we were straight, all of a sudden we dominated the scrum, we were going forward again, and all of a sudden penalty against South Africa.
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“Then we had Fabian Holland going for the turnover on the ground, won the turnover, we held him up. You get the scrum. Why didn’t South Africa get the scrum if it was a fair turnover?
“Then we had the tackle, [Luke] Jacobson on [Cobus] Reinach. He firstly hit the man without the ball, Jasper Wiese, then while counter-rucking tackled our nine.
“Then two minutes later exactly the same happened on our tryline. Damian McKenzie tackles Jesse Kriel, falls over the ball. Jesse tries to place it, he can’t because Damian is lying there.
“Then Marco van Staden comes from the side, tackles the nine exactly like Jacobson, and it’s a yellow card.
“For me, that was just four decisions.
“Yes, South Africa did make a lot of mistakes up to then, but those four critical decisions just put us under so much pressure.
“Yellow card, and then I think the Springboks just felt the pressure and the wheels came off.”
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Matfield also rejected suggestions that the Boks were underdone, with a completely different side having faced Argentina three weeks earlier and the first-choice team having last played together against England in early July.
“If you look at that first 55 minutes, we dominated the game. Up to 55 minutes, we should have been ahead by 20 points, 25 points probably.
“We dominated. Everything happened. It was just one of those games where the ball just slipped out.”
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Photo: Floris van Schouwenburg/Gallo Images
The post Big Vic: Boks were the better team appeared first on SA Rugby magazine.
Victor Matfield insists the Springboks were the superior side in the first Test at Ellis Park and were on the receiving end of some dubious refereeing decisions.
The post Big Vic: Boks were the better team appeared first on SA Rugby magazine. Read More
