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The big play by Codie Taylor that made Willie le Roux and Ellis Park furious

(Source/Sky Sport NZ)

The All Blacks trip to Ellis Park was a season-defining game in 2022 after they had lost four of their last five tests and staring at back-to-back losses to the Springboks.

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It is an understatement to say there was a lot riding the outcome with head coach Ian Foster’s job at stake. With 10 minutes remaining things looked grim for the All Blacks with one man in the bin, Beauden Barrett, and a 23-21 deficit to overcome.

After they scored through David Havili to take the lead by 28-23, a key sequence of events with three minutes remaining ultimately sealed the critical win and saved Foster.

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A big play by hooker Codie Taylor shook the South African crowd as he came up with a massive kick chase to pin the Springboks deep in their own half.

There were two defining touches by fullback Willie le Roux which sent the momentum in the All Blacks favour. The fullback firstly gambled on a kick return trying to make a play, running the ball back from deep but his winger Makazole Mapimpi got tackled and turned over by Sam Whitelock.

After weighing up a potential counter-attack, Jordie Barrett sent the ball deep with a long ranging kick which was chased hard by Taylor who was camping on the left wing.

The Crusaders hooker actually outpaced centre Luhkanyo Am down the sideline, highlighting the effort that the No 2 put into his chase.

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Barrett’s kick sat up perfectly for the All Blacks, forcing Le Roux to pick the ball up a metre from his goal line. The Bok fullback ended up with two All Blacks in his face, Taylor and Rieko Ioane who were bringing immense pressure.

He tried to get a kick away with no angle to do so, and Taylor got physical with him and to send him flying over the advertising hoardings for good measure.

The Ellis Park crowd in the vicinity of the tackle were up in arms in complete shock as the Boks had just conceded a five metre lineout after losing the arm wrestle.

Taylor walked to the lineout nonchalantly as members of the crowd stood up behind him and hurled whistles and taunts while a medic rushed to Le Roux’s aid, but the Springbok got to his feet quickly clearly unhappy with the hit.

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The huge effort by Taylor to pin Le Roux into the corner handed the All Blacks a five metre lineout which gave them the platform to seal the game.

The hooker nailed his throw moments later to Tupou Vaa’i and the All Blacks scored through Scott Barrett pushing over moments later to push the lead out to 35-23.

The final seven minutes at Ellis Park proved to be a turning point in the All Blacks season and the win kept their Rugby Championship title hopes alive, as well as keeping the Freedom Cup safe for another year.

They went on to win their eighth Rugby Championship title and 19th overall including the Tri-Nations era.

Watch Codie Taylor’s incredible kick chase on Willie le Roux below. 

 

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Flankly 50 minutes ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

4 Go to comments
N
Nickers 59 minutes ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Very poor understanding of what's going on and 0 ability to read. When I say playing behind the gain line you take this to mean all off-loads and site times we are playing in front of the gain line???


Every time we play a lot of rugby behind the gain line (for clarity, meaning trying to build an attack and use width without front foot ball 5m+ behind the most recent breakdown) we go backwards and turn the ball over in some way. Every time a player is tackled behind the most recent breakdown you need more and more people to clear out because your forwards have to go back around the corner, whereas opposition players can keep moving forward. Eventually you run out of either players to clear out or players to pass to and the result in a big net loss of territory and often a turnover. You may have witnessed that 20+ times in the game against England. This is a particularly dumb idea inside your own 40m which is where, for some reason, we are most likely to employ it.


The very best ABs teams never built an identity around attacking from poor positions. The DC era team was known for being the team that kicked the most. To engineer field position and apply pressure, and create broken play to counter attack. This current team is not differentiating between when a defence has lost it's structure and there are opportunities, and when they are completely set and there is nothing on. The reason they are going for 30 minute + periods in every game without scoring a single point, even against Japan and a poor Australian team, is because they are playing most of their rugby on the back foot in the wrong half.

43 Go to comments
N
Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

I thought we made a lot of progress against that type of defence by the WC last year. Lots of direct running and punching holes rather than using width. Against that type of defence I think you have to be looking to kick on first phase when you have front foot ball which we did relatively successfully. We are playing a lot of rugby behind the gain line at the moment. They are looking for those little interchanges for soft shoulders and fast ball or off loads but it regularly turns into them battering away with slow ball and going backwards, then putting in a very rushed kick under huge pressure.


JB brought that dimension when he first moved into 12 a couple of years ago but he's definitely not been at his best this year. I don't know if it is because he is being asked to play a narrow role, or carrying a niggle or two, but he does not look confident to me. He had that clean break on the weekend and stood there like he was a prop who found himself in open space and didn't know what to do with the ball. He is still a good first phase ball carrier though, they use him a lot off the line out to set up fast clean ball, but I don't think anyone is particularly clear on what they are supposed to do at that point. He was used really successfully as a second playmaker last year but I don't think he's been at that role once this year. He is a triple threat player but playing a very 1 dimensional role at the moment. He and Reiko have been absolutely rock solid on defence which is why I don't think there will be too much experimentation or changes there.

43 Go to comments
LONG READ
LONG READ England need to face a few home truths if they are to relearn that winning habit England need to face a few home truths if they are to relearn that winning habit
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