All Blacks learn from first Test to cancel Boks’ try scoring move
The All Blacks had a lot of areas to address between their first and second Tests against South Africa over the last two weeks, and very few people thought they would be able to do enough to overturn their biggest loss to the Boks in 94 years in the first round of the Rugby Championship.
But Ian Foster’s side managed to pull off a historic 35-23 win over the Boks at Ellis Park on Saturday, and were miraculously able to improve in plenty of the areas that they came unstuck in during the first match.
One of those was the aerial battle, with the Springboks choosing to kick a lot in both matches. This paid off handsomely in the first match, with Kurt-Lee Arendse managing to score in the first encounter off the back of a high kick that the All Blacks failed to retrieve. Fast forward a week and the All Blacks were a lot more secure and were even able to defuse what looked to be a carbon copy set-up of the try the week before. In fact, they actually used it as a platform to attack in the second match.
EK Rugby Analysis shared clips of both moves on Twitter this week, showing how the All Blacks were able to prevent the Boks coming out on top, even though on both occasions they failed to catch the kick. Ardie Savea was there to rescue them in the second Test, which was a common theme throughout the match. EK Rugby Analysis wrote on Twitter: “What a difference a test makes. Same play, different result. New Zealand much stronger under the high ball yesterday – a big pillar of South Africa’s attack – and score the first try a minute later.”
Take a look:
What a difference a test makes. Same play, different result.
New Zealand much stronger under the high ball yesterday – a big pillar of South Africa’s attack – and score the first try a minute later.#RSAvNZL pic.twitter.com/rp308Re0rF
— EK Rugby Analysis (@ek_rugby) August 14, 2022
Springboks captain Siya Kolisi even said after the game that his side were unable to enforce their gameplan, which showed.
“The first half, the game was fast and we couldn’t put out game-plan on them,” he said.
“We could have worked harder there. We knew they only need a couple of moments to make it count and they did that. Congratulations to them.”
