Four tries to three. Nine visits to the opposition 22 against four. One hundred and eleven rucks won against 77. Ninety-five per cent of the ball in the last ten minutes.
Beaten by seven.
There is no version of these All Blacks player ratings that reads like a bad performance, because it was not one. New Zealand were the better rugby team in Cape Town for long stretches and lost anyway, which is a far more uncomfortable place to be than the one they were in at Ellis Park a week ago.
They lost it in two columns. Cheslin Kolbe kicked four penalties, all of them conceded at or around the breakdown, and that is twelve points handed over by a side that has spent the week arguing about scrum legality. Ruben Love kicked three conversions from four. Kolbe kicked seven from seven. Take those two lines out and New Zealand win this Test.
Who’s your All Blacks man of the match? Tell us below.
The front row
1. George Bower — 6.
Promoted after Ethan de Groot’s head knock and gone by 53 minutes. The scrum never became the weapon it was billed as, though it never collapsed either.
2. Codie Taylor — 6.
Off on 48. Nothing went wrong in his 48 minutes and nothing about them settled the argument at the set piece.
3. Tyrel Lomax — 6.
Also withdrawn on 48, in a front-row triple change that told you Dave Rennie wanted fresh legs against a Springboks bench rather than that anything was failing.
The second row
4. Fabian Holland — 7.5.
Eighty minutes, and he started the move that produced Leroy Carter’s try on 65 with the carry and the offload that got New Zealand moving in the first place. Thirteen caps.
5. Tupou Vaa’i — 7.
Shifted out of the back row to cover Josh Lord and played the full eighty in a position he has not been picked in for months.
The back row
6. Simon Parker — 6.5.
Nine caps and a Test start at sea level against that pack. Wriggled through a gap on 40 minutes and lasted until 51, which is a reasonable first answer to a hard question.
7. Luke Jacobson — 6.
Sixty-two minutes of honest work without a moment that turned anything.
8. Ardie Savea — 8.
Picked up a loose ball from a lineout on 29, went through the middle, escaped two tackles and put New Zealand into the position from which McKenzie scored. Then crashed over himself on 76 to make it a one-score Test. Eighty minutes, captaining.
The halves
9. Cam Roigard — 7.5.
Broke the line inside four minutes and scored on 15 to level it at 7-7. Seventy-one minutes before Preston took over.
10. Ruben Love — 6.
Three conversions from four, a good read and a mark on 56 that got New Zealand out of trouble. The one he missed is dealt with below, and it is not a comfortable paragraph.
READ ALSO: why the All Blacks scrum at Ellis Park was rushing the engagement rather than being out-muscled
The centres
12. Jordie Barrett — 6.5.
Made ground when New Zealand went wide from the scrum on 60 and did the unglamorous defensive work all night, without the turnover count that made him the story at Ellis Park.
13. Quinn Tupaea — 7.5.
Involved in two of the four tries. He took the pass and slid it to McKenzie on 29, then took Holland’s offload and sent Carter away on 65. Off on 67, which looked early.
The back three
11. Leroy Carter — 7.5.
Preferred to Josh Moorby and justified it, taking the wide ball on 65 and beating the cover defence to the corner. Also the man de Jager caught high on 79.
14. Will Jordan — 7.5.
Made the break that put Roigard over on 15 and was still bursting through on 80 with New Zealand chasing the game. Fifty-three Test tries and none tonight, which does not describe his evening.
15. Damian McKenzie — 7.5.
Took Tupaea’s pass on 29 and finished in the corner. Thirty-fifth consecutive Test, eighty minutes, and he kept turning up wide when New Zealand needed width.
The bench
Seven of the eight replacements were used.
16. Asafo Aumua — 6.5.
On at 48, the same change that turned Ellis Park a week ago. It did not turn this one.
17. Xavier Numia — 6.
Twenty-seven minutes at loosehead in the passage where South Africa were kicking their lead out of reach.
18. Fletcher Newell — 6.
On at 48 and the scrum held for the rest of the night. No penalties came from it.
19. Patrick Tuipulotu — 6.5.
Eighteen minutes of lineout and collision work while New Zealand tried to build a comeback.
20. Peter Lakai — 6.5.
On at 51 and part of the pack that won 111 rucks. The ball was there. The points were not.
21. Kyle Preston — 7.5.
Nine minutes on the field and he broke the line that led directly to Savea’s try on 76. Two caps.
22. Anton Lienert-Brown — 6.
Thirteen minutes replacing Tupaea, in a midfield that had already done its best work.
23. Josh Moorby — unused replacement.
Did not take the field. No rating.
Best on ground
Ardie Savea. He made the break that produced McKenzie’s try and he scored the one that turned 33-19 into a one-score Test with four minutes left. Eighty minutes, captaining a side that was losing from the first minute to the last, and New Zealand were still attacking South Africa’s line when the whistle went. That does not happen without someone at the back of the scrum refusing to let it end.
The one who has to improve
Ruben Love, at 6, and the reasoning is arithmetic rather than technique.
His conversion attempt after Carter’s try on 65 was from the touchline in Cape Town, which is a genuinely hard kick, and he had already landed three. But it left the score at 30-19 instead of 30-21. Kolbe’s penalty then made it 33-19 rather than 33-21, and when Savea scored on 76 New Zealand needed a converted try to draw rather than a penalty to win.
That is the difference between chasing seven points and chasing five in the last four minutes. New Zealand had 95 per cent of the ball in that period and nine visits to the 22 across the match. They were never short of the field position. They were short of the two points.
He is nine caps into a Test career at fly-half and he was fault-free at altitude last week. This is the harder education.
Ratings summary
| # | Player | Position | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | George Bower | Loosehead prop | 6 |
| 2 | Codie Taylor | Hooker | 6 |
| 3 | Tyrel Lomax | Tighthead prop | 6 |
| 4 | Fabian Holland | Lock | 7.5 |
| 5 | Tupou Vaa’i | Lock | 7 |
| 6 | Simon Parker | Blindside flanker | 6.5 |
| 7 | Luke Jacobson | Openside flanker | 6 |
| 8 | Ardie Savea (c) | No.8 | 8 |
| 9 | Cam Roigard | Scrum-half | 7.5 |
| 10 | Ruben Love | Fly-half | 6 |
| 11 | Leroy Carter | Wing | 7.5 |
| 12 | Jordie Barrett | Inside centre | 6.5 |
| 13 | Quinn Tupaea | Outside centre | 7.5 |
| 14 | Will Jordan | Wing | 7.5 |
| 15 | Damian McKenzie | Fullback | 7.5 |
| 16 | Asafo Aumua | Hooker | 6.5 |
| 17 | Xavier Numia | Prop | 6 |
| 18 | Fletcher Newell | Prop | 6 |
| 19 | Patrick Tuipulotu | Lock | 6.5 |
| 20 | Peter Lakai | Loose forward | 6.5 |
| 21 | Kyle Preston | Scrum-half | 7.5 |
| 22 | Anton Lienert-Brown | Centre | 6 |
| 23 | Josh Moorby | Outside back | unused |
Kyle Preston at 7.5 for nine minutes will read as generous next to Codie Taylor at 6 for forty-eight. That is deliberate. Preston came on and immediately broke a defence that had held for seventy minutes, and the front row that was picked to win a scrum argument was withdrawn en masse by the 53rd minute without winning it. Rate the minutes if you like. The evidence points the other way.
