Springboks Player Ratings vs All Blacks: Second Test, Cape Town
Springboks player ratings from the 33-26 win over the All Blacks in Cape Town: the evidence behind every score, and the one that will start an argument.
South Africa scored three tries. New Zealand scored four. South Africa made four entries into the opposition 22; New Zealand made nine. New Zealand won 111 rucks to 77 and held the ball for 95 per cent of the last ten minutes.
That is the afternoon in five numbers, and it is why these Springboks player ratings look nothing like a 33-26 scoreline suggests. This was not a pack grinding a series level. It was Cheslin Kolbe kicking 18 points and Cobus Reinach putting three men over the line while everything behind them held on. The forwards lost the numbers that usually decide these games and won anyway, which is either the most South African thing imaginable or a warning before Johannesburg.
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One thing before the marks, because it reframes half of them. Rassie Erasmus swapped his entire front row after the team had been confirmed, and Gerhard Steenekamp, Deon Fourie and Thomas du Toit started instead of Ox Nché, Malcolm Marx and Wilco Louw. He said afterwards it was a weather call rather than a gamble. That is a fourth change to the side named at the start of the week.
He started because the forecast moved. Erasmus explained afterwards that the plan all week had been a heavier front row for a wet field, and a lighter one once Cape Town turned dry. The scrum did not go backwards in his 35 minutes, which was the entire point of picking him.
Thirty-nine, first Test since the 2023 World Cup final, and Erasmus started him against New Zealand. South Africa were ten points up when he came off on 35. Erasmus said afterwards that Fourie missed the tackle for one of the New Zealand tries, put it down to a 39-year-old running out of legs, and then said what he had brought to the side anyway. Both of those things are true at once.
Fifty-six minutes, and South Africa were 30-14 clear when Louw replaced him. The scrum argument that ran all week never got the referee’s attention it was promised.
Broke the line on 19 to set up de Allende’s try two minutes later, then stole a New Zealand lineout on 64 with the All Blacks building. Eighty minutes, in his 144th Test.
Back from a hamstring strain, captained, and scored the try that made it 24-14 with a pick-and-go on 37. Gone at 42, which tells you what the week cost him.
Three try assists. He set up Kriel on the first minute, de Allende on 21 and Kolisi on 37. South Africa’s entire attacking output came through his hands in 56 minutes.
Third straight start in the 10 jersey, and he only had it because Pollard was withdrawn on Friday morning. His cross-field kick on 34 was chased down by Kolbe and won a penalty.
Re-gathered a box kick on 34 to keep a scoring position alive, then found a gap on 68 when South Africa badly needed to be anywhere but their own half. Ten caps and he did not look like it.
Eighteen of the 33 points. Three conversions, four penalties, not a miss among them, including a 40-metre kick straight in front on 71 that put the game two scores away. Add a break over the gainline on 53 and an interception on 54 that killed a New Zealand attack.
On at 35 for Fourie, and on 48 he made a break the All Blacks defence simply parted for. Forty-five minutes is a long shift for a replacement hooker and he was still carrying at the end of it.
Inherited a scrum-half shirt from a man with three try assists, which is unfair on anyone. Kept the tempo sensible while South Africa killed the clock.
On at half-time for Willemse, and broke free on 56 before the attack died around him. He was only in the 23 because Pollard’s withdrawal reshuffled the backline on Friday.
6.5out of 10
Best on ground
Cheslin Kolbe. New Zealand outscored South Africa by a try, made twice as many visits to the 22 and still lost, because Kolbe landed all seven of his kicks at goal. Take his boot out of this match and South Africa lose by eight.
The one who has to improve
Lood de Jager, and the mark is 4.5 rather than anything kinder because of when it happened, not what it was.
He was on for thirteen minutes. Savea had just scored to bring it back to seven, the stadium had turned, and South Africa needed one clean exit. The tackle went high into Carter’s head and Angus Gardner had no decision to make. It handed New Zealand the last play of a one-score Test with an extra man.
South Africa got away with it. That is luck, not mitigation. A lock arriving in the 67th minute is there to be the calm one while everyone else runs on empty, and for twelve of his thirteen minutes he was.
Kolbe at 9 is not the argument. Reinach at 8.5, off after 56 minutes, rated above a pack that lost the ruck count 111 to 77 — that is the one worth having. Name the forward who beats him, and the reasoning had better include a number.
Springboks player ratings from the 29-24 win over the All Blacks at FNB Stadium: a 9 for Ethan Hooker, 8.5 for Malcolm Marx, and a 6.5 built for an argument.
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