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Springboks All Blacks 3rd test Analysis Thread

Started by Pakie36 REPLIES204 VIEWS· 06 Sept 2026, 21:12
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Pakie
PakieCaptain18,305 posts
06 Sept 2026, 21:12
#1
06 Sept 2026, 21:12#1

As always, anyone can join in.

Sluggish start for both sides. ABs run the same type of play they did last week with Dmac running the dummy on Kriel to keep him locked. They get the space wide but Love's pass to Carter is poor, low and into touch.

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Boks from the lineout maul has to play, Reinach delays 5 steps before sending it to DDA, who is easily spot tackled by Jordie as the ABs not bothered by the Wiese and Arendse decoy runs close to the maul.

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1:48 Wiese with a low momentum carry is driven 5m back, leaving the Boks in some disarray and prompting the high ball from Sacha at the next phase. Way too deep, Dmac marks, kicks out. Kolbe throws in quickly to Sacha who is tackled by Quinn. A borderline but imo fair tackle ruled high, penalty, Bok lineout. Wiese gets at the back, drives forward into the 22 aided by Hooker. Quick ball, Nortje beats the first tackle and makes 5 more meters, which ends up just too far for his support as Lakai is over him for the steal.

06:10 The AB now manufacture their first clear space wide. From the scrum Jordie at first receiver will feed Quinn who will occupy both Bok centers.

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The AB backs maintain their offensive alignment to the left, prompting the Boks to shift that way. But Roigard goes right with the forwards, floating the cutout across the face of the first 3 Bok defenders straight to Aumua outside Ox, who releases Lakai for a 20m gain.

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Reinach does well to rip the ball clear from Lakai in the Marx tackle and hacks ahead. Jordan gathers, is given some space by the Bok defense and cuts past Reinach and Hooker. He chips ahead but Kolbe on the cover gets to it first. A kick angled to the wide open space on the right might have yielded more reward, but who knows.

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And that's a mouthful for just the first 7 minutes of a brilliant test.

Plum
Captain22,055 posts
Plum09 Sept 2026, 07:06

Pakie's first image...the Boks re very lucky that Love's pass was into touch...else it could have resulted in a 2v1 on Arendse and then if Kolbe swept around another 2v1 on him.

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Plum
Captain22,055 posts
Plum09 Sept 2026, 07:24

Above, where Pakie says this is the first time the ABS created real space out wide...Kolbe could have found himself in a 3v1 had the ABs selected the correct option. If Kriel and DDA manage to shift, then it's still la 2v1.

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Plum
Captain22,055 posts
Plum09 Sept 2026, 07:28

testing image quality...

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DbDraad
DbDraadCaptain26,964 posts
06 Sept 2026, 21:20
#2
06 Sept 2026, 21:20#2

Your 1st immage looks like obstruction by AB 12 and DMac?... we've had a try disallowed for less obstruction in one of the previous matches.

Pakie
Captain18,305 posts
Pakie06 Sept 2026, 19:30

Nah Jordie was the carrier and is passing and about to get dumped by Steph, Dmac makes contact with Jesse but I don't think those are ruled obstruction. I'm not sure how that works actually. Technically he prevented Jesse from shooting up on Love but players make those contacts a lot on decoy runs and I can't remember any recent examples of it being blown.

Pakie
PakieCaptain18,305 posts
06 Sept 2026, 21:54
#3
06 Sept 2026, 21:54#3

08:10 more shades of last week as the ABs use Carter running off Love from phase ball to get the man over. Quinn gets fairly static ball, flings it to Love while Jesse is doing his usual rush onto him.

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Carter though is coming around on Love's outside and the rush is beaten, Arendse is pinned and the space is there.

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Ball goes to Jacobson edging, he beats Kriel's cover tackle into the 22, breaks Kolbe's jaw in an unfortunate contact as I showed in another thread (Kolbe actually brings him down) and we set up again.

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Now to ABs slowly play right with a few short carries until Jordie throws the wide cutout to Ardie with Lakai outside.

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Ardie steps Hooker to the inside, offloads out of the PSDT tackle and Sacha slaps the offload forward. In my opinion, under the current law for a deliberate slapdown this is penalty try territory as no one is getting to Lakai if that offload gets to him. Lucky escape for the Boks as the ABs but for the hand of Sacha essentially manufactured a try from the start of this whole sequence.

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bobbok
Captain10,631 posts
bobbok07 Sept 2026, 00:36

Poffies, keep up the good work, we're lucky to have you, but Zuluman would say that he's an interceptor rather than a slapper.

Pakie
Captain18,305 posts
Pakie07 Sept 2026, 04:28

@bobbok the law says differently at the moment, but as we discussed on here recently, a change in that respect might be good.

Pakie
PakieCaptain18,305 posts
06 Sept 2026, 22:14
#4
06 Sept 2026, 22:14#4

And lest we forget, in the leadup to all the above - Quinn getting rid of Eben in spectacular style in one of those classic unexpected rugby moments. Naptime for me, more tomorrow.

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MO
moolaaPro2,432 posts
07 Sept 2026, 02:06
#5
07 Sept 2026, 02:06#5

Congratulations guys on Boks superiority on Saturday. I was in the I C U in hospital here in Hamilton after open heart surgery to replace 2 valves. Boks far too dominant in scrums getting so many penalties I nearly ended up back in the theatre…..
ABs had some poor tackle misses particularly from Carter on DDA and Kriel which cost us 14 points. Still that didn’t tell the whole story as the Boks were so dominant in the 2nd half it was painful for me.
I’ll say it yet again, we need that scrum parity to have any chance in Baltimore!

Rooinek
Captain18,826 posts
Rooinek07 Sept 2026, 11:00

@moolaa Hope you recover soon and best wishes.

BE
Pro4,459 posts
becs07 Sept 2026, 13:16

Moolaa…so sorry to hear you are suffering. Best wishes and a speedy recovery.

MO
moolaaPro2,432 posts
07 Sept 2026, 06:24
#6
07 Sept 2026, 06:24#6

Cheers guys.

Plum
PlumCaptain22,055 posts
07 Sept 2026, 08:20
#7
07 Sept 2026, 08:20#7

Good work, Paks.

How does anybody watch a test like this and still find it in themselves to ever watch soccer?

I watched it again last night.

Gosh, what a cracker of a game.

NZ are gonna bring all the fire in America. They're desperate to level things up because 3-1 won't sit well with anybody down there.

But they have a bunch of injuries to key players now.

It's as we predicted at the start of this when we said that injuries over a series like this will hurt the ABs more than the Boks. Ardie, Quinn and Jacobson are all out.

Now think if the Boks had similar injuries. Cam would come in for Wiese, Moodie for Kriel and take your pick if Jacobson's equivalent went down. We've lost Kolbe, but that won't really hurt us too much because it'll be Hooker, Arendse, Willemse.

Still gutted for Clarke. Man I rate that guy big time but he just can't seem to get going and now he's also got a big injury.

Pakie
Captain18,305 posts
Pakie07 Sept 2026, 06:49

They have Blackadder for Jacobson which is a decent swap. Quinn has been a powerhouse, not sure if they'll go for Rieko or ALB. Maybe even Tawwenaai but I doubt it. Ardie is irreplaceable.

Will try to use your chess board this week Plummie. Just takes a lot of time, over an hour to do the first 10 minutes of the game up there. A little more eventful than the previous ones for sure.

Plum
Captain22,055 posts
Plum07 Sept 2026, 11:36

@Pakie Ardie has kind of been the life of the AB comeback this year.

Gonna be a proper test of character to go into this next game, trailing in the series, away from home, and having to come out with a win or have to fly home with a score of 3-1.

Respect though, the ABs have gone back to their DNA and not one of these games has been easy or comfortable. I was still nervous when there was only three minutes left on the clock on Saturday.

As Moz says, what could they achieve with a pack that matches the Boks?

On a slightly different note, has the balance of power really been blurred that much between hemispheres? You hear so much about it lately but it seems like same old same old to me.

It feels like there is always one of the NH sides that can hang with the Boks and ABs. It's England for a while, then Ireland, then then France and round and round we go. But has it ever been the case that there are two NH teams that are clearly better than the Boks and ABs?

If you look today, or go back 5,10 or 15 years, it's difficult to conclusively argue for a closing of the gap. It's honestly seems like not too much has changed.

Pakie
Captain18,305 posts
Pakie07 Sept 2026, 12:15

@Plum man, just in that sequence from minute 8 onwards they created three scoring chances, first with Jacobson in space wide, then the one for Lakai with the Sacha hand, then the one I highlight below where Love feeds the wrong man. They can play but they have such poor set pieces - if they dare go deep in a lineout it becomes a 50/50 so they have to use that flat ball at the front which the opposition also get aware to eventually, and the scrums is just a mess for them. So as the game wears on they just lose more and more traction and have to make more risky plays from ever poorer ball. Set piece and better tactical awareness in terms of kicking for position instead of running bad ball from inside their own half are priorities imo for them to attend to.

I think France and Ireland probably at the end of '23 could hang with the best of the South, but Ireland is sliding and France is hard to judge because they keep sending depleted test sides out. Scotland is almost up there but they always seem to trip themselves up despite how well they play (excepting the 6N game against France where they actually got it all together). I believe England have far more potential than we've seen but Borthers seem afraid to give them free reign. There are some excellent backs and coaching in their system and those boys can run plays and offload games with the best of them, but the national coach needs to get off the handbrake.

Pakie
PakieCaptain18,305 posts
07 Sept 2026, 12:47
#8
07 Sept 2026, 12:47#8

So, to slowly continue, the sequence above with the Sacha knock ends with a wrong option for the ABs by Love. As play goes back to the left the ABs get ruck ball. Outside Jordie is Carter and Dmac with only Kolbe still holding out with a broken jaw on defense. Arendse is already fully committed to Jordie, this ball goes behind Jordie to Carter, he probably scores himself or draws Kolbe and feeds Dmac.

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Love though throws what is pretty much a hospital to Jordie, he tries to offload out of the tackle but it goes forward, end of sequence and back for the Sacha yellow and penalty.

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From the lineout off the penalty Aumua peels around, runs over Reinach and gets helped forward a little more by his teammates, before Ardie picks up to go over for the first AB try, so after a few hiccups they end up with the reward anyway.

In this early stage of the game it's all All Blacks, creating space almost at will.

Pakie
PakieCaptain18,305 posts
07 Sept 2026, 14:36
#9
07 Sept 2026, 14:36#9

13:40 Manie misjudges the wind with a goal line restart, Vaai can't control otherwise with Lakai on his inside this is surely a try. Pollard in the stands knows.

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Bok scrum for the knock on proceeds to destroy the ABs for the first time in the game.

Pakie
PakieCaptain18,305 posts
07 Sept 2026, 14:47
#10
07 Sept 2026, 14:47#10

We have two instances now of Wiese struggling to make his usual impact. 15:59 with a good head of steam he is stopped dead by Jacobson.

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Then 17:40 the Boks can run under advantage. Reinach to Wiese who thunders into Jordan and Jordie, but Jordie strips him in the tackle and the advantage ends.

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bobbok
bobbokCaptain10,631 posts
08 Sept 2026, 05:30
#11
08 Sept 2026, 05:30#11

Best wishes Mooolaaa .... hope 'em new valves give you a new lease of life. The missus might have to watch you ?

DE
Captain13,170 posts
Denny09 Sept 2026, 07:38

Best Moolaa I think I speak for everyone.

bobbok
bobbokCaptain10,631 posts
08 Sept 2026, 05:40
#12
08 Sept 2026, 05:40#12

hopefully this won't be blocked

DbDraad
Captain26,964 posts
DbDraad08 Sept 2026, 14:42

Blocked in Yankee Land.

bobbok
Captain10,631 posts
bobbok09 Sept 2026, 07:38

SA ?

MP
Pro5,209 posts
Mpower09 Sept 2026, 10:28

Blobbie, you should get a T-shirt printed for yourself: I also suffer from Colonial shame, just like my Dutch hero Fabian Holland. That will go down well in Kiwi country 🤣

bobbok
bobbokCaptain10,631 posts
08 Sept 2026, 10:10
#13
08 Sept 2026, 10:10#13

ccl

bobbok
bobbokCaptain10,631 posts
08 Sept 2026, 10:14
#14
08 Sept 2026, 10:14#14
Rooinek
Captain18,826 posts
Rooinek09 Sept 2026, 08:44

Now there's respect . . . not like on this board.

bobbok
bobbokCaptain10,631 posts
09 Sept 2026, 10:41
#15
09 Sept 2026, 10:41#15
— END OF THREAD —

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