Ken Borland

All Blacks coach Ian Foster seemed to burn with righteous indignation when he criticised the New Zealand media for a “vicious onslaught” against him, following his team’s pressure-relieving 35-23 victory over the Springboks at Ellis Park on Saturday evening.

Foster was widely expected to be fired if the All Blacks had suffered a second successive loss to South Africa, which would have been their sixth defeat in seven outings. But his All Blacks team showed glimpses of past glories as they stretched the Springboks out wide with a rapid offload game, won the breakdown battle, stood up well in the set-pieces and defended as if their lives depended on it.

“The stress has been good for me, I guess, I’ve lost one kilogramme,” Foster wryly observed. “It comes with the job but it has been a pretty vicious onslaught, particularly from the New Zealand media.

“Calling them popgun selections I feel is quite insulting to players who are giving their all for their country. But these times are the best test of character.

“I’m intensely proud of that performance. I could not be more proud, to do that at altitude with the game swinging around – there were times we could have won and times we could have lost.

“It was 0-0 for a long time and you could feel it was a real arm-wrestle, but that’s what South Africa are like here. You have to bide your time and we wanted to target the second half and tired legs with the way we wanted to play,” he said.

For the prudish, a Springboks versus All Blacks Test at Ellis Park could be one of the more grosser experiences: the crowd is almost baying for blood, coarse language flows freely and within the first 10 minutes there was a fight in the main grandstand.

But Foster, feeling vindicated, relished the occasion as the All Blacks produced their staple response to the pressures of playing in Johannesburg, notching their fifth win in their last six games there.

“It’s a pretty special occasion and the All Blacks versus Springboks rivalry often generates moments like this. I would like to thank South Africa for their contribution to this amazing spectacle,” Foster said.

“We are very proud to hang on to the Freedom Cup, it is very important to us. The performance today was the result of the last two-and-a-half weeks, this team has reformed and reshaped a bit.

“I saw the same character last week as well, but we did not get the bounce of the ball and did not play well enough. Sometimes a dramatic change just comes from playing more together.

“Long-terms success often starts with adversity. I said last week was our best performance of the year because I saw some signs of competitiveness. This game needs patience, which some people don’t have,” Foster said.

Despite now being faced with the toughest of selection conundrums, coach Mark Boucher feels no sorrow at all for the difficult decisions he will have to make ahead of the T20 World Cup following the Proteas adding a series win over Ireland to their heady triumph over England.

With Reeza Hendricks in rampant form at the top of the order, Aiden Markram continuing to be an explosive presence in the middle-order and Rilee Rossouw showing his class, it seems inevitable that one of stalwart Rassie van der Dussen, appointed captain Temba Bavuma or even a struggling Quinton de Kock will not be selected for the World Cup in Australia in October.

Wayne Parnell’s superb five-wicket haul in the last T20 against Ireland also complicates the all-rounder situation, where he, Dwaine Pretorius and Andile Phehlukwayo are probably competing for just two spots in a 15-man squad.

“As part of the selection panel, there are some tough choices to be made,” Boucher admitted after the 44-run win in Bristol on Friday night. “But it’s a good headache to have, especially with the World Cup around the corner.

“There’s great competition in the squad in quite a few different positions. We gave guys opportunities and they have come good. I like the brand of cricket they have played, it has been brave but smart.

“The guys coming back in have had fantastic attitudes and put in good performances, they’ve definitely added a different dimension. There’s not space for anyone to rest, guys keep challenging for selection and pushing the others to greater heights.

“It’s a very healthy place to be in for South African cricket. A year ago we would not have been having these discussions, so we have a lot more depth now,” Boucher said.

The coach said he was particularly impressed with what Hendricks has done, as he has basically reinvented himself as an aggressive opening batsman.

“Reeza has really come good, being Man of the Series twice in a row and scoring four successive fifties against very good opposition. We always knew he could play.

“But the way he has gone about it, his change in mindset to now being more aggressive, has really stood out. I know Justin Sammons [batting consultant] has done a lot of work with him.

“So credit to Justin, he’s been fantastic with the blueprints he has come up with and he’s had tremendous conversations with the players.

“As the coach, it’s up to me to come up with strategies – how we want to play in different conditions in Australia. The selection panel will then decide what characters they want to get that done,” Boucher said.

Stand-in Proteas T20 captain David Miller said coach Mark Boucher can be delighted not only with the team’s groundbreaking series win in England but also the way all members of the squad stepped up and ensured all three disciplines were firing in the last two games.

Having been well-beaten by 41 runs in the first match of the T20 series, South Africa clicked in batting, bowling and fielding as they won the last two games by 58 runs and 90 runs to win their first white-ball series in England since 1998.

“It’s a huge achievement, I hadn’t realised it had been as long as that,” Miller said after sealing the series in Southampton at the weekend. “It’s really tough to win here, they like to come hard at you and they’ve been really successful.

“So the guys are extremely happy and we’ll have a few drinks tonight and enjoy ourselves. The coach can be super-proud of all the performances. We stood up in all areas of the game.

“There were very good contributions all round. We spoke about the fielding after the first game and all the dropped catches. Our standards are very high and we took some seriously good catches after that.

“To show the bouncebackability we did makes us extremely proud, it showed the character of the team. We’ll take a lot of confidence from this and it’s a great space to be in,” Miller said.

The consistent finisher had special praise for his bowlers, especially wrist-spinner Tabraiz Shamsi, who took eight wickets in the last two games to prove he remains one of the top bowlers in the format.

“Shamo showed he is not ranked as one of the best bowlers in the world for nothing. He knows what he has to do, I might just mention one or two pointers to him about what he can do, just to build his confidence up a bit.

“But the first T20 in Bristol had a very small boundary, we had a game the next day and that’s not something I wanted to harp on too much.

“Given the batting England have, lots of credit should go to our bowlers, they did extremely well. The margin for error is so small in T20 and it’s a funny game.

“But we played a lot of good cricket at the big stages, you have to make sure you’re up for the battle whatever match you’re going into,” Miller said.

With the 2022 Rugby Championship now two weeks away we take a look at the form of the four teams involved, with today’s focus on the All Blacks.

What they did in July

All Blacks coach Ian Foster will be under immense pressure to very quickly reverse the poor results that saw New Zealand set all sorts of unwanted landmarks in going down 2-1 to Ireland. They were Ireland’s first ever wins in New Zealand, it was the first time they had suffered consecutive defeats at home since 1998, and they became only the third All Blacks team to lose a three-Test series at home.

Losing four of their last five Tests has seen New Zealand drop to fourth in the world rankings, their lowest ever place since the rankings began.

The All Blacks romped to a 42-19 win in the first Test at Fortress Eden Park, but the score was inflated by their ability to take their chances better than Ireland did, and 42% possession and 40% territory were warning signs.

A determined defensive effort by Ireland enabled them to win the second Test 23-12 in Dunedin, and the speed and intricacy of their attacking play, as well as monumental defence, saw them beat the All Blacks 32-22 in the decider in Wellington.

What they did in the Champs in 2021

The All Blacks showed no hint of their waning fortunes in the 2021 Rugby Championship, winning five out of their six matches to claim the title with a seven-point lead in the final standings over Australia.

New Zealand had already clinched the crown with a game to spare as they beat the Springboks 19-17 in Townsville, the 100^th Test between the two great rivals.

The All Blacks’ only defeat came in the last game as the Springboks rebounded to beat them 31-29 with the last kick of the match, the following weekend.

The campaign started on a high for New Zealand as they hammered Australia 57-22 at Eden Park, retaining the Bledisloe Cup and notching the most points they have ever scored over the Wallabies.

Australia were stiffer opponents in the next match, going down 21-38 as the All Blacks’ discipline faltered with a red card. They were also disrupted by a couple of key injuries, but two intercept tries sealed the win.

New Zealand used a lot of fringe players in their two Tests against Argentina, but saw the Pumas off comfortably – 39-0 on the Gold Coast and 36-13 in Brisbane.

Fixtures

August 6: Mbombela, v South Africa

August 13: Johannesburg, v South Africa

August 27: Christchurch, v Argentina

September 3: Hamilton, v Argentina

September 15: Melbourne, v Australia

September 24: Auckland, v Australia