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.

While Proteas captain Heinrich Klaasen said he did not really know what his team could have done differently to stop the incredible Babar Azam onslaught that led to a crushing nine-wicket defeat at the hands of Pakistan in the third T20 International at Centurion on Wednesday evening, the skipper is not just sitting back and accepting the hiding that was dished out.

“I’ll be going back tonight and doing a lot of homework to see how we can improve and make sure we draw the last game on Friday,” Klaasen said after Babar had slammed 122 off just 59 balls, allowing Pakistan to romp to their stiff target of 204 with two overs to spare. Perpetual nemesis Mohammad Rizwan scored 73 not out in an opening stand of 197.

“It was a very good pitch and watching that batting from behind the stumps was quite something to be honest. We tried a few things, but you don’t want to be trying too many different things on a good pitch like that. They made a lot of good, well-executed balls look bad with great placement. They batted brilliantly and we did not have enough answers.

“Babar is a special player and when he comes off, it’s very difficult to defend. You always feel maybe you could do something different, but what I don’t know. Maybe we’ll reflect on some execution. But I reckon we were 10 runs short, both openers made more than 50 but we were again guilty of not having a set batsman at the back end. And we were very poor in the field, that was especially bad,” Klaasen said after the chastening loss.

Even though South Africa’s bowling – not well supported by lacklustre fielding – looked utterly toothless, Klaasen did not seem that keen on any major changes for the final T20 on Friday at the same venue, which the Proteas have to win to level the series.

“We’re going to be up for it and we have to bounce back and nail our skills. I don’t feel like we need a big change in personnel, we need some consistency in fact. The question is how do you take wickets on a surface like this where there is no turn, the slower balls skid on and the ball travels miles on the Highveld?

“I reckon the way to take wickets is to defend, we need to build pressure by executing our balls. The bowlers need to work harder to do that. We tried to go to death bowing a lot earlier this evening but that didn’t come off. And we strive to be better in the field, we’ve been brilliant in training but I think the guys are trying too hard, they’re not calm enough,” Klaasen said.

The Lions hit the Bulls with a ferocious first-half onslaught from which they could never recover as they notched a mighty 51-14 victory in their SuperRugby local derby at Ellis Park last night.

For periods in the first half, it was like men against boys as the Lions toyed with the Bulls, scoring four tries in the second quarter to open up a commanding 39-14 lead at the break.

And it was not as if the Bulls weren’t trying, either. They had their moments, but the Lions were just so much better at spotting and making space, and the pace and accuracy of their play was at another level.

The warning lights were flashing for the Bulls as early as the second minute as the Lions began their dissection. Flyhalf Elton Jantjies is almost as skilled as a Beauden Barrett, and he gave a masterful display of pulling the strings throughout, his direct play and ability to commit defenders on the gain-line opening up space out wide, which the Lions clinically exploited.

Ruan Combrinck’s rugby story is one of the more heartwarming ones and the 2016 Springbok debutant scored with his first touch upon his return to SuperRugby, having been out of the game since August when he fractured his fibula. A lovely midfield move saw Jantjies feed wing Courtnall Skosan on an inside run, the flyhalf then getting the ball out wide to fullback Andries Coetzee, who passed to Combrinck, who finished clinically with a deft chip and regather.

For all the criticism, it is apparent that there is ability in this Bulls team and there are moments when it is clear that they are well-coached.

Such a moment came in the sixth minute when they scored a wonderful set-piece try, certainly the equal of the Lions’ opening score.

From a lineout, a lovely interchange of passes between fullback Jesse Kriel and Sibahle Maxwane sent the debutant wing racing through the defensive line before centre Jan Serfontein stormed over for the try.

The Bulls were doing well in the first quarter, holding the Lions to just two penalties kicked by Jantjies, the first from a scrum, the second from a prolonged build-up which showed that the visitors were at least causing some frustration, the home side having earlier kicked goalable penalties to touch.

But the Bulls’ well would quickly run dry.

Blindside flank Jannes Kirsten is known for being a strong ball-carrier, an abrasive player who is difficult to stop. But when he came charging from deep at the much smaller Kwagga Smith, the Lions’ openside did not surrender an inch on the gain-line, instead holding Kirsten up for long enough for his fellow forwards to support him and force the turnover.

From the resulting scrum, Jantjies spotted that Kriel was standing too deep at fullback and his lovely chip into that space was claimed by Skosan, who raced into the Bulls’ 22 before passing out wide for Smith to score.

That was followed by lock Franco Mostert bursting clear in midfield from the kickoff and his good offload over the top went to up-in-support Ruan Dreyer, the tighthead prop showing that he has the mobility to go with his undoubted scrummaging prowess, for the Lions’ third try, all of them converted by Jantjies.

Kriel showed that he was up for the contest, however, when he burst through the weak tackles of Smith and Skosan to score the Bulls’ second try, in the 28th minute, when there really wasn’t much on for the visitors.

Brummer converted to make it 14-27, but that would be the last time they scored in the match.

To make matters worse, two stupid mistakes would gift the Lions two more tries before halftime.

It had been one-way traffic for a while, but for an international scrumhalf, it was exceptionally poor of Rudy Paige to telegraph his box-kick so blatantly by the way he was standing. Eighthman Warren Whiteley, who once again led from the front in inspirational fashion, charged down the kick and did well to dot down as the ball threatened to squirm out of his grasp on the tryline.

In contrast to Jantjies’ game-management, opposite number Brummer was a non-entity, although he did not have front-foot ball to play with. But his failure to find touch from a penalty kick on the Lions’ 22, which would have provided a wonderful attacking platform, was inexcusable.

Instead the Lions took a scrum on their 22, won a penalty and set up a lineout in Bulls’ territory. From there Jantjies’ direct run drew two defenders and then it just took two passes out wide for Combrinck to be racing over in the corner again, ending the first half as he had begun it.

The Bulls were staring a horror movie in the face, 39-14 down at the break, but instead of being disembowelled by the ravenous Lions, they did manage to claw back some pride with a better second half.

There were no further gains on the scoreboard, but limiting the Lions to just two more tries, in the 43rd and 80th minutes, was something of a success.

Jantjies manufactured the first one with a lovely little chip-pass to Skosan, hooker Malcolm Marx, never far from the action, came storming up in support and Mostert went over from the next ruck.

The final try came after outside centre Lionel Mapoe went into a half-gap and an interchange of passes with replacement centre Jacques Nel saw the Springbok split the tired defence and race away for the try, Jantjies converting to seal the Lions’ biggest winning margin against the Bulls.

While the Bulls did fight back in the second half, it was still a poor display and they were utterly humbled by their neighbours. As a corporation as a whole, they need to take a long, hard look at themselves.

Most galling is the fact that the core of the Lions side comes from players rejected by the Bulls. Coach Nollis Marais is likely to get the sack this week, but there are poorer performers above him in the Bulls hierarchy who should not be immune to the blame.

Points scorers

Lions: Tries – Ruan Combrinck (2), Kwagga Smith, Ruan Dreyer, Warren Whiteley, Franco Mostert, Lionel Mapoe. Conversions – Elton Jantjies (5). Penalties – Jantjies (2).

Bulls: Tries – Jan Serfontein, Jesse Kriel. Conversions – Francois Brummer (2).

Ireland coach Joe Schmidt said the entry of South Africa’s big weapons in the second half had delivered an onslaught that the tourists were unable to handle as the Springboks turned a 19-3 halftime deficit into a thrilling 32-26 victory in the second Test at Ellis Park at the weekend.

“We said at halftime that we can’t sit on the lead with the weaponry South Africa have, and that was in full evidence in the second half. They delivered an onslaught that we couldn’t match up to, the result was earned by the Springbok ball-carriers.

“The way the Springboks came back was relatively irrepressible – Damian de Allende is a devastating carrier, Ruan Combrinck is unbelievably tough to put down, once he got the ball in his hands he was a real handful, and Warren Whiteley scored a really well-taken try,” Schmidt said after the game.

Ireland captain Rory Best said his team still believed they could go to Port Elizabeth and win the series in the third Test next weekend.

“Obviously this defeat is very hard to take, for large parts of the first two-thirds of the game we did all the things we talked about – we were physical, we got off the line quickly and we held on to the ball. But we couldn’t defend that lead because once the Springboks started to come around the corner we began to slip tackles. If you don’t compete around the fringes against the Springboks then you’re going to lose.

“But we’ll take this loss on the chin and come out stronger on the other side. We still have a chance to win the Test series and we have to make sure that if we’re in this position again, we don’t make the same errors. We must improve on the last quarter,” hooker Best said.