How Springboks controlled 'everything' late in comeback win over All Blacks

With their backs up against the ropes, the Springboks didn’t cower on Saturday evening as they unleashed a desperate barrage of point-scoring blows upon the All Blacks. The ‘bomb squad’ certainly made their mark as South Africa came from behind to win 31-27.

South Africa were down but never out of their clash against New Zealand at Johannesburg’s world-famous rugby venue, Ellis Park. The visitors led 27-17 with 15 minutes left to play but a yellow card to replacement Ofa Tu’ungafasi swung the Test in the Springboks’ favour.

Kwagga Smith crashed over to score a decisive score one minute after the All Blacks had gone down to 14 men. That gave the Springboks’ passionate fans something to cheer about as they dared to dream, and the players thrived on the back of that support.

Grant Williams was the hero the Springboks needed with six minutes left to play, with the reserve halfback slicing through the All Blacks’ defensive line to score close to the posts. Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu converted the try to extend the hosts’ lead to four points.

With time up on the clock, Williams ran the ball into touch to end the match – the crowd erupted once again. The Springboks had stayed cool, calm and collected to claw their way back into the lead as they claimed a decisive win in The Rugby Championship.

“That’s why as a team we’ve been together since 2018 so we’ve started to understand each other and notice different roles each other person plays in the team as well,” utility forward Pieter-Steph du Toit told reporters on Saturday evening.

“The senior players in the team help a lot. We call it ‘pressure points’ so everyone has a certain point that they’re focused on.

“That definitely has a big impact on the way we control the game.

“You just try and focus on the next job, or not even on the next job, just on reality,” he added. “We play what we see, we try to manage the game and we really hope we make the right decisions.

“If it’s not the right decision, we try and force to make it the right decision – by that I mean if it’s a bad kick we chase and make it a good kick. That’s the culture in the team. We try to control everything and make sure it works out.”

Du Toit was named the Player of the Final in last year’s Rugby World Cup decider against the All Blacks and the Springbok repeated those heroics with a Player of the Match performance against the same foe at Ellis Park.

The two-time Rugby World Cup winner shifted back into the second row to help fill some gaps that the team’s injury crisis had created, and somewhat unsurprisingly, du Toit passed that test with flying colours against some of the world’s best players.

“To play against probably the best side in the world, it’s unbelievable, an honour and a privilege for me,” du Toit explained.

“To compete against the best and to make sure you’re at your best, there’s no better stage to compare yourself and the team to compare yourself with. It’s an honour and a privilege to play against them.”

South Africa haven’t won the Freedom Cup since 2009 but they’re now just one win away from snapping that streak. If the Springboks can beat the All Blacks next Saturday in Cape Town, they’ll add more silverware to the team’s shiny list of accomplishments.

But they’ve been in this situation before. In 2022, the Boks won the first of two Tests 26-10 in Nelspruit before falling to a 35-23 defeat at Ellis Park a week later. The South Africans will be eager not to let this opportunity pass for a second time.

“It would be awesome.

“It’s nice for the trophies and stuff but what we can do is we’ve got a job to do, we get paid to do this and guys pay a lot of money to come and watch us so we’ve got to represent them and make sure they get value for their money as well.”