‘Boks came through with flying colours’

Nick Mallett says a Bok win on Saturday was never in doubt, the only question was the margin against an All Blacks side that has shown it is no match for South Africa physically.

The former Springbok boss was speaking on the Talking Boks podcast after the Boks’ 43-28 victory in Baltimore secured the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series 3-1.

“The most dominant performance,” Mallet said. “They’ve done it this whole series; we’ve had periods of dominance but haven’t managed to take our opportunities.

“I was more comfortable in this game than in any other one I was watching. I felt that for the Boks, it was just a question of how much we were going to win by.

“We would’ve been happy with 3-1 at the beginning of the series. All the people who said 4-0, they’re dreaming.”

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Mallett noted that Rassie Erasmus had answered doubts about whether his senior players could hold up over four punishing weeks against the All Blacks. 

“When you consider, unusually for Rassie, he kept the body of that squad together and only moved players in and out because of injuries or because of weather conditions … It was a group of 23 to 30 players that he didn’t move away from, which is unlike the Nations Championship selection.

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“We learned that the older players – which was a big question mark before this series, whether players in their mid-30s would be able to last – coming through four Tests against the All Blacks over four weekends is harder, in my opinion, than the last four games in a World Cup. 

“The guys came through with flying colours. Pieter-Steph [du Toit] always plays his 50-odd minutes. Siya Kolisi was playing really well. The two centres [Damian de Allende and Jesse Kriel], just the backbone of that defensive backline.

“Rassie’s been involved for 100 Test matches. He understands what is required to win Test matches, and he’s got a massive support base from not only the players but also from the country.”

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Mallett was careful to credit Dave Rennie’s progress in charge of the All Blacks, as he felt the Kiwi hadn’t yet grasped out-thinking the Boks tactically.

“Rennie’s come in, he’s had 13 games now, he’s lost three away from home. He’s still got a lot of time to bed down this All Black team, and he will have learned.

“[But] I don’t think you’re going to beat South Africa just by playing movement rugby. They’re going to have to front up physically, which I didn’t think they did.”

Photo: Michael Franken/Michael Franken Photography