The 33-26 victory has to be credited to Lex Luther mastermind Rassie Erasmus who switched his starting front-row an hour before kick-off and built a gameplan around his ever-changing selections that wheedled out some previous unrealised cracks in the All Blacks armoury.
The All Blacks never looked totally rattled or harangued, but they were a little bit off for extended periods.
There was nothing obviously broken about their game, but they made a few key, costly errors that deepened the perception that they were battling to cope with the defensive linespeed and all-round pressure South Africa were exerting.
If there was one piece of the All Blacks weaponry that felt more troubled than any other it was the lineout which was the weak spot that South Africa exploited.
It was wobbly when Codie Taylor was on at hooker, but got decidedly fragile when Asafo Aumua replaced him, and come the review the All Blacks will look at the number of times they had great field position but couldn’t win the ball at lineout to capitalise.
Aumua is a monster ball carrier and defender but at this level, the core job is throwing the ball to a man in black, and he’s going to have to head back to throw school this week if the All Blacks are to keep themselves in this series.
And for the first time this year, Ruben Love looked a little unsure at times. He had a few dither and hither moments, as well as some direct intrusions and clever touches, but he couldn’t quite find his best game.
Or at least, he couldn’t find a way to make himself the dominant figure the All Blacks needed him to be.
Perhaps it’s misty-eyed nostalgia, but the memory says that in games like this yesteryear, Daniel Carter would have found a way to impose his will on proceedings and deliver a touch of magic to change the shape of the test.
Love wasn’t a long way off, but the fractions matter at this level. Jordie Barrett, so assured and brilliant last week, was tied up and shut down and he too had the odd moment he’d rather forget — a poor decision to try to run out of his own 22 rather than hoof the ball downfield, and an uncharacteristic hesitation after fielding a high ball.
But like Love, he also had his good moments — a handful of high ball takes, some great long passes over the top of the defence to Will Jordan and his usual portfolio of big tackles.
The All Blacks will also need to look at their discipline, which was again at the high end of the acceptable range, with two or three penalties falling squarely in the needless category.
But it was small margin stuff that swung the game away from the All Blacks. They got a fair bit right — finding a way to play around South Africa and create space out wide. They scored four tries to South Africa’s three.
Leroy Carter was a revelation on the left wing. He lived up to his proclamation that the best way to deal with the high ball, “is to catch it, eh”, and he made timely intrusions off his wing, tackled like a demon and finished bravely.
As Erasmus noted, this All Blacks team is not the one it was a year ago and there was an underlying sense of relief that his side had sneaked home given how tight the margins were between winning and drawing.
And that’s the crazy thing — it felt like the All Blacks were a little overwhelmed by South Africa’s ball-carrying, battling to stop their maul, constantly playing with the defence in their face and not quite winning the high ball as often as they would have liked and yet they were maybe two phases away from salvaging a draw.
Credit to their spirit — they hung in there, playing the role of the Hollywood apocalyptic Zombie and refusing to go away.
Gregor Paul is one of New Zealand’s most respected rugby writers and columnists. He has won multiple awards for journalism and written several books about sport.
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