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If the grand plan was to show the Springboks, and the rest of the world, nothing, and try and get rid of the World Cup favourites tag, then the All Blacks’ night out at Twickenham may just have been a roaring success after all.
Well, what other way could you explain an implosion of epic proportions in London on Saturday morning (NZ time) – one which ended in the biggest loss in the All Blacks’ 120-year, 630-test history?
Ian Foster has gathered some unwanted records on his CV during his rollercoaster time in charge of the national side, but, 364 days since he last tasted defeat, all those woes seemed behind him on the verge of the global showpiece he will bow out at, with his team flying high on an 11-match unbeaten run.
Cue a 35-7 meltdown against South Africa to throw quite the spanner in the works, then, a fortnight out from their Cup opener against France.
To think the All Blacks could have gone to No 1 in the world rankings with victory by 15 points or more over the Boks. Instead, the men in black never even looked capable of scoring 15 points total, or even scoring at all.
Had it not been for Cam Roigard’s stunner of an individual try in the 71st minute, the men in black were staring down the barrel of just the ninth time in history where they had failed to get on the scoreboard in a test, and a first time since 1964.
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Ian Foster has had yet another history-making blot added to his CV as All Blacks coach.
Those blemishes spared, this is still the first time they have been kept to single figures since the last World Cup, and the seven they notched in the semifinal loss to England in Yokohama.
It’s now a fifth World Cup in a row where the All Blacks have lost their last test on foreign soil ahead of the tournament, but the manner of this history-making one will, in the words of captain Sam Cane, make it extra painful.
“It certainly stings,” he told the host TV broadcaster soon after fulltime.
“It hurts to lose a test match, and to lose it the way we did here tonight.
“There’s no denying it, we’re really disappointed with how we performed.”
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All Blacks captain Sam Cane feels the pain of the record defeat to the Springboks at Twickenham.
While Foster bizarrely labelled a game which was severely stop-start and lacking any sort of flow “a great spectacle”, he credited the Springboks for the way they were able to turn up the heat on his side up front, particularly with a unique 7-1 forwards-back bench split thanks to a training niggle to Willie le Roux.
“You couldn’t help but be impressed with what they did,” he said.
“They really got stuck into us. Their physicality and particularly their set piece, they had a massive game up front, lineout time, scrum time, and that was the big difference.”
Though Foster felt his side’s defence in the first 20 minutes, when they were pinned in a corner, was “outstanding”, he knew they had to be far cleaner than the early 8-0 penalty count they got themselves on the wrong end of, along with the three first-half yellow cards to Scott Barrett (two, equalling a red) and Cane.
The skipper himself noted “discipline really hurt us” and that the Boks’ ability to dominate at set-piece made it hard for his side to get anything going, as the South Africans responded emphatically to their 35-20 loss in Auckland six weeks ago.
Instead, it’s now the All Blacks who have surrendered a psychological edge to their great rivals, who they could well meet in the quarterfinals of the World Cup.
“It’s a game that we’re going to have to learn a lot from, we’re going to have to learn quickly,” Cane said.
“But I’d much rather we have it now than in a few weeks’ time.
“It reminds us that our feet need to stay firmly where they are on the ground, and we’ve got a lot of work to do in the next couple of weeks.
“We’re off to Germany for a camp and we’ll be rolling up the sleeves.”
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