Boks match decided by a penalty at the death for the 3rd time this year 0
For the third time this year the Springboks were involved in a Test match that was decided by a penalty at the death as they went down 17-19 to the All Blacks in Townsville on Saturday, coach Jacques Nienaber describing it as “swings and roundabouts”.
New Zealand fullback Jordie Barrett slotted a brilliant, angled, long-range penalty to deny the Springboks, who had enough front-foot ball in the closing stages to shut the All Blacks out, but instead tended to kick that possession away.
South Africa won the series against the British and Irish Lions through Morne Steyn’s fairytale penalty, but were then beaten two weeks ago by the Wallabies through a last-ditch kick by Quade Cooper, another comeback story for the ages.
Nienaber was philosophical about the heartbreaking loss that consigned the world champions to a third successive defeat and handed the Rugby Championship title to New Zealand.
“It was a proper Test match as you’d expect from No.1 versus No.2 and there were small margins. We each have our own DNA, but it is always physical and comes down to a couple of points. That’s the contest, it’s that tight and we expected that. Our game-plan worked, we had opportunities, and it went down to the wire, decided by a call here or a bounce of the ball there.
“Obviously we are hurting because we could have pulled the result out of the game, we were in position to do it. I thought it was an excellent effort and we deserved victory. We were in with a shot at the end and it comes down to small margins. But we won against the Lions like this and Australia did the same to us, so it’s swings and roundabouts,” Nienaber said after South Africa had lost a third successive game for the first time since 2016.
While the Springboks brought their old physicality, sheer mongrel and set-piece brilliance to the contest, the criticisms that they overdo the kicking game and are poor with ball in hand will return as they wasted front-foot ball when they were still in the lead in the closing stages by kicking it away. Bizarrely, up-and-unders were twice launched from the All Blacks’ 22, South Africa losing the resulting 50/50 contests when they had been in control of possession.
But Nienaber defended the decision-making of his halfbacks.
“We always say we must attack space, but we had 14 players in front of us in the line and only one at the back, so unfortunately there was not a lot of space. We want to create a one-on-one and you can do that with a passing game or with a kick. If you can create space through the air, or by running or passing, then you must attack there.
“If we had won this match then we wouldn’t be having these questions. We could have probably shown more composure at the back end of the game, finishing the match better when we were leading up to the 78th minute springs to mind as something we could have done better. This is a very experienced side but we sill have a lot to learn as a group,” Nienaber said.