The Springboks were humbled and hammered, and the irony is it happened at a venue called Mount Smart because the Boks were everything but smart in giving the All Blacks the perfect opening quarter.
The visitors would never recover from a first up 20 minutes, in which they did not have an attacking scrum, and fed the lineout for the first time on 19 minutes.
The All Blacks were masterful, playing with skill, subtlety, softness and speed of passing and accuracy. They got the reward through four tries, the first a result of nine phases, which stretched 61 metres and lasted a minute and 21 seconds.
The strength of the world champion Springboks is their set piece, their discipline and physicality in the collision. Whatever they put in the water in Auckland, it doesn’t agree with the Springbok players because they never looked as impotent, bewildered and battered as they did in the first half.
The physicality belonged to the All Blacks, with Shannon Frizell and Scott Barrett imposing. The hosts owned the first half in every facet of play, even picking off two Bok lineouts.
What was a crime was the lack of Bok player appetite in the first 30 minutes. This can be fixed by the World Cup
These Boks conceded five penalties in the first 15 minutes. A week ago, a very different Bok team, playing a vastly inferior opponent in the Wallabies, conceded just two penalties in 80 minutes.
This is supposedly the Bok ‘A’ team but the last time I saw a heavyweight look so bemused and confused was when Anthony Joshua was being clubbed into submission by Andy Ruiz Junior.
The Boks are renowned for being the bad boys of world rugby — the monsters upfront who hit hard and crave the gainline collision. At Mount Smart, the reverse was true, and the Boks were pummelled in the collisions, missing 20% of their tackles, and invariably beaten by the hand speed of the All Blacks.
The All Blacks were mesmerising and the Boks were miserable.
It was the first international hit out for 10 of the starting Boks, and they were stunned by the ferocity and tempo of the All Blacks. It was New Zealand who did all the bullying. A year ago, the men in black were condemned for a lack of physicality in a historic first ever home Test and series defeat to Ireland, which was followed by a 26-10 defeat against the Boks in Nelspruit.
These All Blacks are different from the imposters who arrived in South Africa for that Nelspruit Test in 2022. The players are the same, but everything else has changed — from technique, to tackle intensity, to the defending of the maul, and to the scrum engagement.
The credit for this must go to forwards coach Jason Ryan, who has transformed the All Blacks pack, as he did the champion Crusaders in his six years assisting Scott Robertson.
Former Ireland coach Joe Schmidt has added tactical nous to the All Blacks attack, especially their kicking game, and South Africa’s back three didn’t have a clue in dealing with the accuracy of the All Blacks kicking game.
Winger Kurt-Lee Arendse, as just one example, will be a beneficiary of this emphatic defeat. The hat-trick hero of Loftus can’t be overlooked again.
The introduction of the famed Bok bomb squad on 45 minutes stifled the All Blacks momentum but basic errors and ill-discipline haunted the Boks. This was as poor as the Boks have been for some time, but a team is only as good as the opposition allows, and the All Blacks gave the Boks very little generosity on the ball or on defence.
The inside pass too often beat the famed Bok rush defence. The Boks could also not handle the pace and tempo with which the All Blacks played.
The likes of RG Snyman, Duane Vermeulen, Pieter-Steph du Toit and Malcom Marx made for a more competitive Bok performance in the last 35 minutes, but the damage had been done by half-time, and one of the more perplexing decisions was to take three points on 35 minutes when trailing 17-0.
I also thought the mentioned quartet would be introduced at 30 minutes, given how ineffective the Boks were at the collisions and in the tackle area close to the breakdown.
What the match did show was that veterans like Vermeulen and Du Toit will serve the Bok World Cup cause better if they are starting options. Equally, Marx at hooker.
Whereas the All Blacks had the luxury of time at exits in the first half, there was no such charity from Du Toit, Vermeulen and Marx in the intensity they brought to the breakdown and the ruck in the final half hour.
The All Blacks benefited from starting with the core of the team that smashed Argentina in Mendoza a week ago. They had the greater rhythm. The Boks, in that first 45 minutes, looked overwhelmed and underdone. They were desperately poor, but losing to the All Blacks in Auckland, where the home team has not lost in 57 Tests since 1994, is no crime.
What was a crime was the lack of Bok player appetite for the contest in the first 30 minutes. This can be fixed by the World Cup, even if they can never get back that humiliating opening quarter.
The All Blacks, in Johannesburg and Auckland, have comfortably been the better team.
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