Victor Matfield and SA coach brutally rip into ‘lazy’ All Blacks finishers after ‘dire’ impact against Springboks

Former Springboks lock Victor Matfield and ex-SA sevens forward Jonathan Mokuena have ripped into the performance of the All Blacks’ bench at Ellis Park.

South Africa’s bench proved pivotal once again for Rassie Erasmus’ men as they overcame a 10-point deficit to defeat New Zealand 31-27 in Johannesburg with replacements Kwagga Smith and Grant Williams grabbing tries to seal the victory.

While Matfield and Mokuena also appreciated the impact of the famed ‘Bomb Squad’, they were incredibly critical of the All Blacks’ replacements with the latter dubbing them as ‘lazy’ and ‘really dire’.

All Blacks’ bench blasted

Mokuena is a respected voice for analysis in SA Rugby circles having coached in the Varsity Cup and captained the South Africa Sevens team while being an analyst for Supersport.

The panel on Supersport’s Final Whistle Presents Side Entry believed that any notion that Robertson is under pressure is far too premature but stressed that he has to build depth and believe in the squad.

“The biggest challenge I believe that the All Blacks are facing is the bench, I think Robertson knows who his best XV is for the crunch matches,” Mokuena explained.

“They weren’t as impactful as the Springboks but at the same time, when you are in the first year of your coaching contract it is the only time that you can actually try things and the top management will still understand.”

Matfield agreed with his co-analyst adding that he believes that currently in Test rugby, top teams need a squad of at least 30 high-quality internationals.

“Especially when you go to a World Cup,” the ex-lock said.

“All of a sudden, we lost three of our most important players and then you must be able to replace them.

“For the All Blacks, the question they must ask themselves is if they believe they can beat this Springboks side because they were there, they played their best game but they still lost and threw the game away.

“I do believe Robertson has a plan that can compete with the Springboks but can he sell it to those young players against the world champions and when there is twenty minutes left and they see that Bomb Squad coming on – I think that’s the biggest battle for them and I’ve been on the other side playing for the All Blacks.”

The bench costs the All Blacks

Mokuena then took a closer look at the All Blacks’ replacements particularly around their defence in the build-up to Grant Williams’ match-winning try.

“Going back to the point of not having a 23 that can actually be competitive, if you look at the winning try, this for me was really, really dire from the All Blacks,” he said.

“Because as any coach, you would want your players off the bench to make a massive impact. There is a lot of chaos here but when you slow it down, and look at the back view, it actually gives you a clear picture of how lazy the impact players were off the deck.

“You can see Fletch Newell (18), Sam Darry (19), Samipeni Finau (20), and Asafo Aumua (16) all those players not coming around the corner [at the ruck] and going to the dark side and out working the Springboks.

“The replacement scrum-half Cortez Ratima, again he is folding but he is going into no-man’s land and you end up with two defenders behind one another.”

It wasn’t just the defensive effort in that particular set where Mokuena saw an issue with the All Blacks’ bench but also their general play. He believes that the starters set a good platform and played well but that their work was undone by the replacements who failed to match the impact from South Africa’s bench.

“Now again, they would feel that their bench wasn’t as effective as they would have wanted them to be because from 1 to 15, they were good but it was the finishers that came on and weren’t,” he added.

“Then look at the loosehead replacement Ofa Tu’ungafasi, yes the team was on a general warning but you can’t concede there and he then gets the yellow card and goes off the field – it’s simple.”

“If you bring in the stats, there are so many stats that just showed that these players weren’t as good enough.

“The ball carries, Aumua had one carry same for Tu’ungafasi and Newell same for Darry – defence 3,6,1,5 tackles in 20 minutes.

“For me in that time, you must, must be better and if you compare it to the Springboks forwards: Malcolm Marx, three carries and four tackles, Gerhard Steenekamp three carries and four tackles again, so if you compared the stats and yes our bench played long but what I’m saying is the effectiveness of our bench was much better than theirs.”

Meanwhile, Matfield believes that Erasmus has a different approach to the replacements which has paid dividends for South Africa.

“The biggest thing that Rassie coaches is work rate, he tells the player that you can go out and you can make a mistake but if you get off the ground slowly and you lie there for one second or you don’t get around the corner, I won’t take that,” the Bok great added.

“Every single guy in that 23-man squad – it doesn’t matter how long you play – it’s work rate, work rate for 80 minutes, it’s so important.”