Better late than never, and with due apologies to RN...

Californian rock band The Wallflowers sing, “C’mon try a little, nothing is forever, there’s got to be something better than in the middle,” in their Grammy award winning song ‘One Headlight’. And judging by Saturday night’s second test, it appeared as though the Springboks had taken this piece of advice on. Under the tutelage of Mike Cron, the All Blacks have become the proud ‘owners’ of the best scrum in world rugby, and too often teams seem to take this as a given and worry about other facets of the game.

Not the Springboks though. After the beating they took in the scrum in the first test, they turned it around on the weekend. Indeed, they knew “there’s got to be something better than in the middle,” and took on the All Blacks scrum, disregarding its reputation.

This is where I feel the main difference was from the first test performance – not just the scrums but set pieces in general. In the first test, the All Blacks dominated the scrums, and although the Boks were still dominant at the lineout, it was half an hour before their first chance as the All Blacks looked to keep the ball in play. However, it was a completely different story on Saturday. Scrums were even and as usual the Boks gave nothing away in the lineout. They had very strong platforms to work from in the set piece, and this was best illustrated when JP Pietersen scored his try. Without the experience of Williams & Thorn, the All Blacks made a hash of a defensive lineout, leading to a Boks scrum 5m out, from which van Niekerk & Pietersen were able to expose the All Blacks blindside defence and crash over for a try. The ease at which the Boks scored this try has to be a concern, and gives further reason to revert back to specialist blindside and openside flankers, rather than left and right.

Not only would this move help defence from set pieces – especially against a team like the Boks – but would surely help the All Blacks at the breakdown too, where the Boks are Absolutely ferocious. The velocity and impact at which their forwards throw themselves into the ruck area is extraordinary, and they were able to slow down our ball too many times. Compounding that was Andy Ellis. His delivery is too inconsistent yet predictable, and overall far too slow. Jimmy Cowan should have been subbed on. His passing has improved over the last couple of seasons, and he always keeps the defence guessing by having a run every so often – similar to the way in which Ricky Januarie operated.

Another area of concern for the All Blacks is their fringe defence around the ruck area. We got exposed far too often there on Saturday. Januarie ran straight in between Mealamu & Tialata en route to his match winning try straight off the ruck, and there were other instances involving the likes of Andrew Hore where the speedy South African backs just had far too much pace for the front rowers hanging off the ruck and waltzed through. I’d hate to think what would have happened if Jaque Fourie was fit and played alongside Jean de Villiers in midfield.

For the All Blacks, John Afoa had a good open game, showing good ball handling skills and great pace too. After his injury though, was it a good move throwing him back against the Boks? Especially after the game Greg Somerville had last week. A solid enough effort from the forwards but without any standout performances. Losing Ali Williams after half an hour was a massive blow, the impact of which I don’t think can be underestimated. Kevin O’Neill came on for his test debut to partner Anthony Boric who had only played 2 tests, compared with the 122 that Matfield & Botha had between them. In hindsight, someone like a Jason Eaton, who not only has test match experience, but has been playing a high level of rugby for the NZ Maori team may have been a better option on the bench, considering O’Neill had not played a high level of rugby for about 2 months, and was up against the best second row in world rugby.

Carter once again had a good game, and his goal kicking was outstanding. 4 drop goal attempts, which was very interesting. The reasoning behind this could have been a number of things. The outstanding Bok defence meant that too often the All Blacks attack was repelled, or maybe the All Blacks have finally woken up to the fact that a drop goal is worth 3 points! Nonu and Muliaina were by far the most threatening backs. With Sivivatu’s injury, the decision to move Muliaina, the world’s best fullback, to the wing was puzzling. Stephen Donald coming on at second five, pushing Nonu to the wing might have been a better option. Having said that though, the Nonu/Smith combination has been fantastic this season, and it may not have been a good idea to field the inexperienced Donald against the outstanding de Villiers. The experience of MacDonald was the choice in the end, but this again highlights perhaps questionable selections on the bench. Surely someone like Anthony Tuitavake, who covers centre and wing, would have been a good bench option.

One vindicated bench selection though, to be fair, is Sione Lauaki. The selectors must have been tempted to put Chris Masoe on the bench, given the fact that he can cover all three loose forward positions, but Lauaki can be such an explosive player, as he showed on Saturday. It is just too bad that he has not been able to show that kind of form when starting a test. Surely it has come to the point where Lauaki needs to start performing from week to week.

The All Blacks now have a week off, but there are changes that need to be made. Brad Thorn and Ali Williams will slot straight back into the starting XV, as should Daniel Braid. We need to go back to our traditional blind/open style, meaning So’oialo moving to 8 to make way for Braid, with Jerome Kaino dropping out of the match day 22. Did Kaino even touch the ball on Saturday? Jimmy Cowan surely has to start in place of Ellis, and the selectors might even need to look at Rudi Wulf. Wulf is solid, and probably a better all round winger than the likes of Sivivatu and Tuitavake, but those two offer much more on attack. At the very least, Tuitavake needs be on the bench. He is a dynamic player and would offer great impact off the bench.