Springboks vs All Blacks second test analysis/review thread

Will post as I go, anyone feel free to contribute whatever you want.

First order of business - how Kriel got an easy opening score.

Boks off to a great start with the kickoff being caught and booted out by Jordie 30m out, immediate field position. Lineout win, 15m rolling maul. From here very simple - Fourie breaks away and from this point the ABs are on the back foot and the Boks play too quickly to give them time to recover. Quick ball from the Fourie breakdown, short ball to Wiese tackled by Tupea, then quick ball again for the pivotal big gainline run from Kolisi through Jacobson. Quick ball now sees Eben (clapping his hands calling for it) and PSDT run the inside dummy line to keep Ardie and Holland static. The ball goes straight past Eben and PSDT to Jesse, who attacks the gap left outside the frozen Ardie and Holland and inside Jordan, who has just enough doubt to deal with with Sacha running outside Jesse to be unable to affect anything. Try.

The rolling maul which started some distance from the abs line was a treat to behold. You knew the Bok ment business.

03:25 first box kick Reinach, Hooker secures, Kolisi first there to clear. Reinach to DDA who offloads forward to Wiese, who drops it anyway.

Might have to download another replay video, this one keeps freezing up while the commentary carries on.

I'm very much waiting in anticipation of the breakdown of the first AB try.

Something tells me its going to be scathing.

For the next 5-6 minutes after the Bok try the ABs have a lot of possession but is frustrated by the Bok rush defense, resulting in a few poor kicks with attacking ball as their options grow thin. The lineout at 09:40 follows Willemse's clearance of one such poor kick, and it kicks off a sequence worth noting.

Again it's a short ball to the front like by the ABs like when Roigard broke down the touchline a few minutes earlier. The ABs pull the Boks to center field with a Quinn carry into Sacha and DDA. Now they strike back left again where mostly Bok tight forwards are defending in a line. Jordie's pass goes behind Vaai edging again but they achieve their aim - spread the Boks around. ABs move back right, first with a carry into contact to set up the next phase. As they play Carter comes around from left wing to receive Jordie's pass, which draws Hooker in and gets them a 3 on 1.

The Bok cover has to rush across, opening up a big gap down the middle occupied by nothing but air and All Blacks. Note the tight forwards coming across from the other side of the gap struggling to keep up with play. Dmac slips as he tries to step, but PSDT (and this is what I'm talking about elsewhere on the forum about his pace and mobility) can't adjust quickly enough despite the slip and Dmac hits the gap.

He kicks a grubber for Jordan who gathers but is tackled by Sacha near the tryline. Penalty advantage ABs as Jesse tries to jackal without supporting his bodyweight. Again the Boks are thin out left but Quinn's pass goes behind Dmac and the chance for a strike wide is lost. Carter carries and sets up. A gap opens as the Boks abandon the open side of the ruck to cover the right and Parker beats Wiese's tackle to make some meters into the space.

Hooker's dominant tackle on Quinn ends the ABs momentum and they go back for the penalty.

In this sequence we can see how the All Blacks use the width of the field to get the Bok defense scrambling, which in this case opens two gaps - the one that Dmac runs through and the one at the ruck as the Bok forwards scramble to get across. Had Quinn's wide pass from the Jordan breakdown been accurate there could have been trouble as the All Blacks had numbers wide.

At the AB lineout resulting from the penalty Eben competes and gets a hand to the ball, resulting in a Bok scrum and a big AB chance gone.

The Dud Allende try is being contested….take a look at Deon Fourie…..he is down on the ground ahead of the ruck. That’s not an issue methinks, but as he gets up he barges backwards into Parker delaying his movement and Dud passes through that gap. That’s could be construed as obstruction. Perhaps Fourie was trying to get out the way, but the effect was still to obstruct the tackler, who brings down Dud, but too close to the line

First AB try. We saw what they did in the previous play with Carter coming over from the left to provide an extra man. Same again this time.

Lineout just inside halfway, Bok territory. ABs setting up midfield to compress the Bok defense.

Quinn again carries into DDA and Sacha. Ruck. ABs stack the right, note Carter coming round - he will be the key while we have a dummy runner angling in to keep Kriel honest (ends up in borderline obstruction).

Hooker goes in on Love with Carter receiving to establish the man over as he draws Willemse to feed Jordan.

Jordan beats Jesse for straight pace and DDA, hesitating in probable anticipation of an inside break, can't make up for the yard or two that costs him and is also beaten. PSDT in cover seems to be in a position to influence play but again makes no more ground than Nortje to his inside and only starts sprinting once the pass goes to Roigard, thus ends up a few yards off Roigard as he receives the scoring pass. It's hard to judge these things from TV angles but again, I am concerned about our 7 having the speed of a lock, especially against a side like the ABs pushing the width and edges of the field. I'm having trouble deciding if this is fair or unfair criticism in this instance, I'll leave people to decide for themselves since the footage is freely available on the highlights package as well.

Another one of those ref calls you have a hard time understanding. Kolbe tackled, they attempt to hold him up but his knee touches the ground pretty much right away right in front of Gardner, and two seconds later they're both on the ground, still under Gardner's gaze. That means the tacklers need to let go. It's only 8 seconds after the initial ground contact that he finally blows the whistle, awarding a scrum to NZ.

And this is Jacobson's grip on Kolbe.

And to even things out a bit, here is DDA clearing Roigard with a forearm to the neck on the halftime whistle.

At the risk of making too fine a point of it - PSDT getting a solid tackle position on Vaai, who just walks out of it. This is the type of thing that raised the question marks for me against England this year. Earlier Jordie Barrett also all but shrugged off a Steph tackle. This is not 2023 Steph anymore.

There's a stark contrast between Esterhuizen and Wiese in this game. Wiese has been largely ineffective on the carry, dominated and hit back in the tackle numerous times. Esterhuizen has dominated the first tackle with every carry so far.

55:54 Hooker with an impressive carry, steps Jordan, beats Love and Quinn before finally being caught by Jordan after making 20m through a congested area. Get this guy the ball.

A splendid job thus far, Paks.

So true about AE.

I honestly cannot imagine a world where I don't start him in every single game that he is available.

I'd be setting him up for those little loop around move constantly where the ball goes to 13, and AE comes around at pace with only the opposition winger and 13 in front of him. Chances are be busts the first tackle and makes the offload back inside or to the winger on the outside. The type of stuff you simply cannot do with DDA.

Or those 5m situations. AE coming on at pace an receiving a pop.

I'm not sure if you remember last season when i was complaining that the Lions were not using Venter properly because they were not setting him up to run at the opposition. Basically the gameplan nullifying one of the strongest players on the field. And then this season they actually started creating moments where he could run, and how massive a difference that made. To me, the exact same thing is happening to AE at the Boks. He's money every time you let him build up a bit of speed, but we just don't see the Boks setting him up to do that.

Imagine him playing for the ABs, France or Ireland...jirre, he'd be the focal point of their attack. All roads would end with him getting the ball at pace and with a man on either side of him waiting for the offload. And it would be deadly. For heaven's sake...he's 193cm and 118Kgs!!!???

It actually blows my mind that this guy is forced to play at flank.

I don't have time to point out too much more stuff from this game, it takes a lot of time. But having watched the last 20 minutes properly now which I struggled to do with how crappy my internet was on Saturday, the All Blacks moered us a bit in that period and we helped them do it with our box kicks just returning possession to them. Carter's try came directly off a Bok box kick. We have to seriously rethink this strategy. We were looking like blowing out the score at one point and then just stopped playing. Aumua was a firecracker for the ABs when he came on, both on the carry and the tackle. Lakai likewise must have made a big argument for a starting spot, but he brings plenty off the bench too.

If the All Blacks can settle themselves down a little and improve their accuracy in execution (they made a lot of errant passes, a lot, that tanked good momentum or chances for them), work on not isolating so much (Marx won us 6 points on his own at the breakdowns) there can be big trouble.

AE's turnover on Jordan to end the game was huge as they already had us stretched again. Should be a cracking third test.

Haha, the officials were having none of head and neck contacts in this game from either side (until Lood's). Earlier I mentioned Aumua being the only one to stop AE dead. Well, it's actually a double tackle with Lakai involved too, but look at the contact area from Aumua -clear shoulder to head. Penalty at the very least, but Sam Cane would be scratching his head. From this breakdown the boxie comes that leads to Carter's try.

Carter's try - Krappies kicks a decent contestable boxie, but for once Hooker is beaten in the air by Jordan, who takes the ball clearly and finds himself coming down in a corridor of space between chasers Eben and Marx, giving him an easy 10m by the time Marx gets him down.

The All Blacks run their quick passing game again, Jesse as always gets himself into the AB line to prevent the wide pass or invite the lob over the top which helps the defense close down the space. Jordie however keeps the short pass game going by drawing DDA and feeding Holland, which draws Jesse back in and opens the space wide.

Holland now lobs it over Jesse's head, with Dmac again running a dummy line next to him serving to draw in Cheslin as well. The Holland pass however cuts out Dmac and goes straight to Quinn who throws the cutout to Carter in space.

Jesse can't get there and Manie who can does the weakest of a shoulder dusting excuse of a tackle and Carter scores. This is rather a spectacular try, perfectly executed.

PofaDaddy, thanks brilliant breakdown ... btw Aumua's 29, young enough for another two RWCs

Players who never missed a tackle last Saturday:

Nortje 13 tackles made…. shades of Mostert
Esterhuizen 8 tackles……Clever take note.
Hooker 7 tackles
Reinach 5 tackles

This excludes players who never attempted a tackle. Not astounding stuff but when you consider Kriel missed 7, Manie missed 5 and van den Berg disappointingly missed 4….these were our defensive stalwarts

You're right about that final steal, Paks. The commentator literally twice said Hanekom made the steal...these bloody misinformation agents.

The next thing i want to know is why you don't make a little Youtube channel for these reviews.

I think there is an audience for it.