All Blacks suffer heaviest defeat in history to Springboks in London

At Twickenham, London: Springboks: 35 (Siya Kolisi 18′, Kurt-Lee Arendse 34′, Malcolm Marx 42′, Bongi Mbonambi 59m, Kwagga Smith 67′ tries; Manie Libbock 5 con. All Blacks: 7 (Cam Roigard 71m tries; Richie Mo’unga con) HT: 0-14

Red card: Scott Barrett (All Blacks) 39m (two yellows). Yellow cards: Sam Cane (All Blacks) 16′, Pieter-Steph du Toit 52′ (Springboks).

When the All Blacks reflect on their humiliating outing in London, where they suffered a 35-7 defeat to the Springboks – their worst loss in history to this opponent – and had lock Scott Barrett red carded, their notebooks should be crammed with details about poor discipline, sloppy decision-making and silly errors.

That had better be the case, because with just two weeks until their first World Cup pool match, against France in Paris, the All Blacks displayed a tender underbelly on Saturday morning (NZT) that hadn’t previously been exposed during their four victories earlier this year.

All Blacks coach Ian Foster wanted a vigorous work-out for this full-strength team ahead of the global tournament, and hoped to emerge with a win, no injuries and no discipline issues in front of 82,000 people at Twickenham.

He got none of that. The All Blacks’ previous heaviest loss to the Boks was in 1928, when they lost 17-0 in Durban.

In addition to Barrett collecting two yellow cards – automatically upgraded to red – in the first half, the first for being offside and the second for an ugly clean-out on Springboks hooker Malcolm Marx, captain Sam Cane was yellow carded for a ruck infringement.

That wasn’t the end of Foster’s problems. Tighthead prop Tyrel Lomax suffered what appeared to be a very deep gash to his leg, and as he lay slumped on the turf he looked disconsolate.

Whether the injury is bad enough to impact on his World Cup campaign is uncertain, but Foster now has multiple issues to sift through ahead of the tournament. Barrett would be immensely relieved his two yellow cards weren’t upgraded to red by the off-field officials, which means he should be free from sanction.

Given Brodie Retallick isn’t expected to be fit for the match against France and Foster named only four locks in his World Cup squad, that would be a massive relief.

The Springboks, while no doubt rapt with the win which was a reversal of the 35-20 defeat they suffered in Auckland last month, also had their own issues with discipline; Pieter-Steph du Toit was yellow carded for a high shot on Cane.

Reduced to 14-men for all of the second half, the All Blacks couldn’t compete with the intensity and power of the Springboks. The men in black conceded tries to Siya Kolisi and Kurt-Lee Arendse in the first 40 minutes, and when Marx and Bongi Mbonambi crashed over for five-pointers in the third quarter it destroyed any chances of the All Blacks somehow launching a salvage operation.

Both of the Boks front rowers prospected after attacking lineouts as the All Blacks were forced to find ways to make the scoreline look respectable. The more they tried, the less luck they had.

Handling mistakes at crucial stalled the All Blacks’ momentum, and their scrum suffered in the absence of Barrett. The lineout also became dysfunctional.

The sight of a concerned Foster deep in consultation with his assistants when Lomax was receiving medical attention spoke volumes about his team’s situation.

Not only did Foster have to ensure replacement prop Fletcher Newell was ready to go, he also had to figure out how to reconfigure his forward pack after Barrett and Cane were yellow carded within minutes of each other.

That was just to be the start of his problems.

There was drama galore for the All Blacks from the outset. There was the issue of the All Blacks’ conceding so many penalties while trapped deep inside their own half; the South Africans had been awarded eight in the first 10 minutes, a reflection of the amount of possession they had during that period combined with a reluctance to kick for goal.

Instead of taking the easy points, the Springboks repeatedly attempted to punish the All Blacks with lineout drives. The All Blacks elected to roll the dice and test the referee’s patience, breaching the rules to ensure their opponents couldn’t splinter their maul to score and paid the price.

Given the Springboks’ dominance for the majority of the first spell, the All Blacks did well to keep their line intact only be down 7-0 when reduced to 13 men. When Boks skipper Siya Kolisi finally scored his team’s try, it was a result of immense pressure thanks to the lop-sided penalty count.

The second five-pointer, to wing Kurt-Lee Arendse, was the result of midfielder Jordie Barrett throwing a pass directly to him near his own 22m line. Despite appearing to look at the space outside his left shoulder, Barrett inexplicably elected to deliver the pill to Arendse.

The latter couldn’t believe his good fortune, while the large contingent of Kiwi fans in the crowd scratched their heads with disbelief.

During a rare foray into the opposition danger zone in the final minutes of the first spell the All Blacks briefly celebrated what they thought was a try to Will Jordan. A knock-on by Mark Telea, however, resulted in the five-pointer being scrapped.

The real drama, however, was when Carley was alerted to Barrett ramming his shoulder into Marx during that movement. It changed everything.

Barrett also had no reason to sniff about his red card, a consequence of poor technique for his clean-out on Marx with the latter making it clear he wasn’t happy about the high shot.

A try to replacement halfback Cam Roigard in the 71st minute was scant consolation for the All Blacks.

The task, now, is to prove they have the mental resilience to rebound from this shock loss. They have two weeks to get that right.