The All Blacks captain fronted the media alone in Johannesburg on Friday 4 September, the day before the third Test at FNB Stadium. He talked about the hit, the family who were told South Africa was dangerous, and the coin toss he has not won all year, the last of which cost New Zealand the first minute in Cape Town.
Ardie Savea was on his back on the DHL Stadium grass, and the man who had put him there was the one he had sat beside in church six days earlier.
“All I could hear was my dad’s voice saying, ‘Get up,'” he said on Friday. “So I got up.”
Every outlet in both countries will run that line before kick-off. Savea also said something about a coin that nobody will run, and it explains the first two minutes in Cape Town better than anything else he said. There is a number further down, too, that turns the All Blacks’ fitness advantage into a problem. Whether a coin can decide a Test is the argument waiting at the bottom of this page.
Savea, speaking to the media in Johannesburg on Friday 4 September before the third Test of Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry at FNB Stadium, said Siya Kolisi is “an enemy when you’re on the field”, that he has lost every coin toss this year, and that he will not discuss altitude. The series is 1-1. Kick-off in Soweto is 17:10 local time, forecaster Juandre Vorster has a Highveld storm over the stadium from about 3pm, and the arithmetic is blunt enough that the captain did it himself.
“If we do lose, you can’t win the series. The best case is a draw. So we need to win.”
“He’s an enemy when you’re on the field”
The hit came in Cape Town on Saturday 29 August, Savea catching a kick over the top with his back to the Springboks chase when Kolisi hit him. Kolisi was replaced two minutes into the second half.
Asked how he compartmentalises a friendship at a referee’s conversation, Savea did not accept the premise.
“Oh, no. No. Once you’re on the field, you’re locked in. He’s an enemy when you’re on the field, and he’s the same way. When he saw my back, and I was catching the ball, and he hit me.”
Then the line about his father. Then this.
“But hey, that’s footy. We’re going to try and smash each other tomorrow, and then jump on the plane again.”
The friendship is documented. RNZ’s Joe Porter reported on Saturday 29 August that the two captains share a faith, went to church together in Johannesburg on the Sunday after Ellis Park, and talk about their children rather than the game when they meet. Kolisi’s line to him was “we don’t talk about rugby”. It sits beside Trevor Nyakane’s account of a captain who never raises his voice.
Told that South Africa were one up in the tackling stakes, and asked whether he would line Kolisi up on Saturday, he said he had already told him: “Next time, tackle me frontwards.”
Which is the technical point inside the joke.
Schalk Burger, 86 Tests in the Springboks back row and a World Cup winner in 2007, described the tackle on Boks Unpacked on Friday 4 September as “a proper big shot … with the ball over the top”, which is what Kolisi is in the side to do.
Jordie Barrett, the All Blacks inside centre, explained on Monday 31 August why the shot keeps being available. “You’ve got to get up in contest,” Barrett said at the All Blacks’ press conference. “You can’t stand around the area or protect your catcher. So it turns into a bit of a lottery.”
A catcher hit from behind does not brace. The hit goes through the kidneys and the ball, and the first thing that comes back is breath, not the ball. Savea’s answer to that was to get up.
So the thing to watch at the first Springboks box kick on Saturday is not the catch. It is whether an All Black stands between the catcher and the first chaser, and which way the catcher’s chest faces when the ball lands. Back turned, nobody in front, and anyone in green gets the shot Kolisi got. “Frontwards” is a captain asking for a shape his side has not shown yet.
Read also: what Savea said New Zealand actually lost in Cape Town, and why it was not the scrum.
Ardie Savea has lost every coin toss this year
A reporter said Rennie had suggested winning the toss would be a good start, and asked Savea for his record.
“I’ve lost every single coin toss this year.”
The room laughed. He kept going.
“I’ve been going heads, tails, then I’ve been going, ‘Lord, tell me.’ Still lose. So I don’t know.”
Asked what he would call on Saturday: “I’d say tails, but I might go heads. 50-50.”
It deserves a second look, because of the last time he lost one. In Cape Town the Springboks kicked off, and kicked deep. Barrett’s clearance did not travel, South Africa won the lineout, the maul went, and Jesse Kriel scored inside two minutes. Two of the five moments that cost New Zealand Cape Town were their own lineout.
Ewen McKenzie, 51 Tests at tighthead for the Wallabies and their head coach in 2013 and 2014, said on Rugby Unity on Friday 4 September that “the key to this game is who wins the toss”. A Springboks side that wins it kicks deep and dares New Zealand to kick for touch. “What New Zealand can’t do is kick it into touch,” he said. Steve Hansen, who coached the All Blacks to the 2015 World Cup, went on the same show to the lineout that follows: “I’d stay down in the first five, six, seven lineouts.”
Strip the joke out and there is a mechanism left. Savea cannot control the toss, and by his own count it has gone against him every time. He can control what his side does with the first ball, and all he would say about that is that there is a plan. So the tell on Saturday arrives before the clock reaches two minutes. Watch where the first All Blacks exit goes, the kick out of their own half, touch or field, and watch whether the jumpers go up at the first Springboks throw. Exit to touch, jumpers up, and Cape Town starts again.
The starts, and the plan he will not share
A journalist put it to him that the starts had been slow all season. He did not argue.
“Last week they came out firing. We wanted to start well, and we’ve been talking about that, and we didn’t.”
And the fix?
“I think we have a good plan. I’m not going to share that.”
The numbers are not in dispute.
| Half-time, Ellis Park, Saturday 22 August | Springboks 13-12 |
|---|---|
| Cape Town, Saturday 29 August | Springboks in front for 79 of 80 minutes |
| Final 30 minutes, both Tests combined | All Blacks 31-6 |
Source: NZ Herald (Liam Napier, Tuesday 1 September) and the match records.
The number promised at the top is the 31-6. A side that wins the last half-hour of a series 31-6 and has still lost a Test does not have a fitness problem, and the fitness advantage everyone in New Zealand is counting on is something else. The All Blacks win the last thirty because they are chasing. A side that leads at half-time in Soweto will find out how much of that 31-6 was desperation. Rassie Erasmus has already conceded the last quarter and built his week around the first one.
Altitude was supposed to be the Springboks’ edge. Savea would not discuss it.
“The more you talk about it, the more it becomes a hassle. So for my mindset, I just don’t talk about it. It’s going to happen. It’s tough. You’re going to struggle anyway. … People said it was going to be easy in Cape Town. It wasn’t.”
RugbyPass’s Ben Smith counted it on Wednesday: eight wins from the last ten Tests at Highveld venues, and both Tests ever played at FNB Stadium.
## Rassie changed his front row an hour out. Savea says he noticed it jogging on
Rassie Erasmus changed his entire starting front row an hour before kick-off in Cape Town, with Deon Fourie at hooker and Malcolm Marx on the bench. Cheslin Kolbe’s start was confirmed on the Thursday, which Erasmus insists was not a late change. Dave Rennie has taken the Springboks scrum to World Rugby. His captain was asked whether the match-day changes affected him.
“To be honest, I ran out on the field and saw the kicker, and I saw the hooker will change, ‘Oh, let’s change.’ So it is what it is, man. For me, I’m a simple man. Go out there, put the boots on, play footy.”
A coach spends a week on the legality of a scrum. His captain noticed it jogging out, and the day before a Test Nika Amashukeli is refereeing, the captain’s version is the smarter one. Erasmus has gone back to the front row he first picked for Saturday, and the two coaches had a beer together after Cape Town and board the same charter on Sunday.
The rest of the room: a 50th cap and a haircut
Tupou Vaa’i wins his 50th cap on Saturday, six years after a debut against the Wallabies.
“He came in very young … and he had the guidance of the Sam Whitelocks, the Kieran Reads. … Just being the quiet man he is. … Just to see him come up to 50 is very special.”
Asafo Aumua starts at hooker after two Tests off the bench, after Codie Taylor was left out of the 23.
Wallace Sititi, on the bench for his first involvement of the series, has a sister, Amarante, 19, who scored on her Black Ferns debut against the Wallaroos and plays the 13:30 curtain-raiser against the Springboks Women.
“I think it’s pretty special to have siblings representing the black jersey. … I think they should be done more often.”
Savea’s own family are in South Africa, staying at the team hotel.
“They say it’s, ‘Oh, you’ve got to be careful, it’s dangerous,’ and all this. … The majority of the time that they’ve been here, it’s been absolutely beautiful.”
The haircut happened in Cape Town the night before the second Test, at the home of Davian Salmans, a 22-year-old education student, whose mother cut it. Cape Town Etc reported that Savea left the family tickets to the Test.
“Seeing a young man serving in the background when there was all the noise at the front. And his mum just happened to be a hairdresser. … And the granddad, he knew more All Blacks players than I did.”
Ardie Savea, the captain who got up
It is an easy image and Ardie Savea knows it. The All Blacks have spent two Tests getting up, and both times the last half-hour was theirs. A team that keeps needing to get up has a first-two-minutes problem, not a fitness one.
So the Test is settled inside the first exit and the first lineout, by where that kick goes and whether New Zealand contest the throw. Get those two right and altitude stops being a conversation. Get them wrong and the best New Zealand can take home is a drawn series.
Read next: why South Africa have never beaten New Zealand at FNB Stadium, and why Saturday is still theirs to lose.
Frequently asked
What did Ardie Savea say about Siya Kolisi before the third Test?
At the All Blacks captain’s press conference in Johannesburg on Friday 4 September, Savea said Kolisi is “an enemy when you’re on the field” and described being hit by him from behind while catching a kick in Cape Town, and said he had told Kolisi to tackle him “frontwards” next time. The two are close friends off the field.
When is the third Test between the Springboks and the All Blacks?
Saturday 5 September at FNB Stadium, Soweto, kick-off 17:10 South African time. Nika Amashukeli referees. The series is 1-1. The fourth and final Test is in Baltimore on Saturday 12 September.
Who is playing his 50th Test for the All Blacks at FNB Stadium?
Tupou Vaa’i, who starts at lock alongside Sam Darry. Damian McKenzie plays his 80th Test, Will Jordan his 60th, Fletcher Newell his 40th and Luke Jacobson his 30th, per the All Blacks’ team announcement.
Your turn
So which is it? Does Saturday turn on the first two minutes, as McKenzie says and Savea’s coin suggests, or on the last thirty, which the All Blacks keep winning without a lead to protect? Kriel’s try and the 31-6 are above. Settle it below.
