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Andrew Mehrtens 'surprised' by unexpected weakness in Boks' display

Codie Taylor of New Zealand during the Castle Lager Rugby Championship match between South Africa and New Zealand at Emirates Airline Park on August 31, 2024 in Johannesburg, South Africa. (Photo by Dirk Kotze/Gallo Images)

Though South Africa came away with a narrow 31-27 win over the All Blacks at Emirates Airline Park on Saturday, former New Zealand No10 Andrew Merhtens feels Scott Robertson’s side will be “taking a lot of positives” from their performance.

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Both sides will head into a rematch in Cape Town on Saturday with plenty of belief from what they produced in Johannesburg.

The world champions may have got the victory, but it was far from a convincing performance, particularly in the first half. It was actually a display that “surprised” Mehrtens, particularly with regard to the Springboks’ defence.

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Response to the pre-match Haka chaos at Ellis Park | RPTV

The Boks Office crew, joined by Andrew Mehrtens, discuss the performance of the Haka before facing South Africa. Watch the full episode on RugbyPass TV

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Video Spacer

Response to the pre-match Haka chaos at Ellis Park | RPTV

The Boks Office crew, joined by Andrew Mehrtens, discuss the performance of the Haka before facing South Africa. Watch the full episode on RugbyPass TV

Watch now

The All Blacks great was a guest on RugbyPass TV’s Boks Office this week, where he said the Springbok defence was “not as cohesive or robust as I expected”.

The Boks’ ferocious defence has been the foundation of their consecutive World Cup triumphs, but it was uncharacteristically porous against their arch-rivals in round three of the Rugby Championship. Caleb Clarke’s opening try was an example of how the All Blacks across the board were able to make ground easily, albeit from turnover ball.

Match Summary

4
Penalty Goals
1
3
Tries
4
2
Conversions
2
0
Drop Goals
0
106
Carries
100
3
Line Breaks
7
12
Turnovers Lost
15
7
Turnovers Won
3

But it was not just in the tight quarters that the Boks’ defence underachieved in Mehrtens’ eyes, but also their inability to stop the visitors spreading the ball wide.

“I was a bit surprised that the defence was not as cohesive or robust as I expected,” the 70-cap All Black said.

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“And that might just be the changes in players, the changes in roles or whatever. But the All Blacks were better at trying to punch holes against that defence than they were against Argentina, for example.

“They used stepping, Codie Taylor was a good example, rather than just thumping into the body, a bit of a step, get on a weak side and get a little bit past the contact zone. But I did feel South Africa wasn’t as tight in that defence as I expected and the All Blacks got a bit more go-forward a bit more easily than they might have anticipated.

“None of us expected the All Blacks to get around the outside of the Boks like they did. The best and most stable midfield in the world – [Damian] de Allende and [Jesse] Kriel – then you’ve got those fantastic wingers with all the pace and it’s been hard to get around the outside of the Boks. So the All Blacks did that really well. So they’ll be taking a lot of positives.”

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Comments

5 Comments
J
JK 77 days ago

Like Rassie says 'take them to the gutter' when they try to 'take you to the dance floor'

l
lm 79 days ago

Positives like blowing a 10 point lead!. DMac going over time to kick conversions. Making wrong passing decisions. There are certainly positives. I feel NZ Rugby has dropped standards in a lot of ways and it has affected their game. Rebuild yes, but don't bloody take 30 years!

B
BE 79 days ago

AB's have always been the best team in the world ball in hand. The French when they have their tails up can rival them and the Welsh teams of old showed the way. The outcome of the game last week to me was a "non-result". Either team could have won and as a SA supporter I wouldn't have felt at all aggrieved by our performance, even if we lost. It was a typical SA vs AB's game, in the mood no defence can stop the AB's, in the mood our direct physical game does make teams wilt. Can't wait for this week

S
SK 79 days ago

Springboks conceded a try off turnover ball from a knock on in their half that went out the back and gifted the AB's an easy shift and score which the rush was powerless to resist. Then an intercept is impossible to defend against and a maul try was well worked by the All Blacks with a touch of truck and trailer there. The one try when they got around us was at set piece and that was unacceptable because it was first phase ball. There were several other occassions where they got around the rush but couldnt beat the cover. In the end the Boks gave away from soft tries. They will have to do better if they wanna win this week in CT

B
Boergundy 79 days ago

I agree. Two of the tries were not due to the ABs beating the Bok defence. The intercept for sure, the turnover after BJDs error was well exploited but the defence was disorganised at that point. The Boks should cut out those errors, in this game alone it resulted in 14 easy points to the opposition

B
Bull Shark 79 days ago

I wonder whether they were anticipating the dinks over the top of midfield, that kept the defense a bit narrow leaving them exposed when the All Blacks did go wide? That was my immediate thought.

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H
Hellhound 44 minutes ago
France put World Cup pain behind them with unbeaten run in November

France is starting to look like they are finally over their WC headache, although they were lucky that NZ had a very bad game. The Argies as usual is one game good, the next bad. If they can sort that out and be more consistent, they could become contenders for the WC.


NZ, Argentina (if they are more consistent), and now the Wallabies too is in an upward curve (can they be consistent?), as well as Fiji(as inconsistent as Argentina) looks like possible contenders. The Boks will be as usual a huge threat to defend their title. Things are looking up for the South, so the North should rightfully beware of the Southern Hemisphere threat.


With the French looking dangerous, the English with their close runs (mostly a mindset problem) and the Scottish seems to be the NH main contenders. The Irish is good, but not excellent anymore. They are more overbearing and with their glory days mostly gone with old players hanging on by a thread, by 2027 if they don't start adding in the younger players, they won't make it past yet another WC Quarter final. The problem is that their youngsters, while good is nothing special.


That is just 8 teams without the Irish that can become real WC contenders. Lots of hickups to be sorted still for these teams, excluding the Boks to become a threat. Make no mistake, the top Tier is much closer than people realise and the 2027 WC will be a really great WC, possibly the best contended WC ever.

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