All Blacks great pinpoints where Scott Robertson ‘didn’t have players that could compete’ with the Springboks

Ex-All Blacks forward Murray Mexted believes that Scott Robertson didn’t have a big enough pack to beat the Springboks in the Rugby Championship.

New Zealand departed South African shores after suffering back-to-back defeats to the Springboks, falling at Ellis Park and Cape Town Stadium.

The Springboks fought back in both Test matches and are now on the cusp of winning the Rugby Championship for the first time since 2019.

All Blacks lacked size

Robertson’s side unravelled in the second of the two Tests and Mexted believes that it was the lack of size of the New Zealand back-row and the team’s inability to win the possession battle.

“You know 46% [possession] doesn’t sound like a lot under 50% but it is when the opposition’s mistakes are from things like knock-on,” Mexted said on The Platform NZ.

“Whereas I thought with that our lineout with our three loose forwards they’re all about 6’1 or 6’2 and you’ve got guys that are 2 meters in the opposition loose forwards, when there is such a big height difference there is always going to be a problem.

“I’ve said for years now that you need at least three – absolute minimum of three – good lineout jumpers so normally you get the two locks that are capable of winning the ball and one of the loose forwards possibly two. You don’t have to look back very far to see that the All Blacks have actually had four lineout forwards and for many, many years.”

The All Blacks were able to put the Springboks’ lineout under pressure during the fixture in Cape Town but ultimately it was a Pieter-Steph du Toit steal that sealed the result with the back-rower lifted by lock Eben Etzebeth helping him beat Tupou Vaa’i to the ball.

With Wallace Sititi, Sam Cane, Ardie Savea and Luke Jacobson featuring in the back-row for the All Blacks, Mexted bemoaned the height differences in comparison to the Boks and previous All Blacks stars.

“You look back at guys like Shanon Frizell, Jerome Kaino, and Keiran Read – these sorts of guys and there are a hell of a lot of lineout forwards in the Springboks loose-trio and we didn’t have any that could compete against the opposition, particularly on their ball,” he added.

“If you look at the number of lineouts, we did well in a way because we moved it around but we still lost the lineout battle, so when you lose possession you have a hard road to hoe.”

Expecting the All Blacks to win

The result on Saturday means that the All Blacks have now lost four successive matches against the Springboks and one from four in the Rugby Championship.

Mexted still holds the belief that the All Blacks should be expected to win every game they play and says that it was the fear of losing that used to inspire them.

“My opinion is obviously coloured by the fact that I expect the All Blacks team to win every game,” he said.

“I’m sure as hell that during my era playing for the All Blacks, we were expected to win every game and in fact, you look over 100 years of All Black performances and you win 80% of the time you got to say you get used to winning.

“In the old days, it was the fear of losing that drove us, it was saying do you want to be part of an All Blacks team that loses, no thank you.

“I expect them to win them all, when I heard about these two Tests in South Africa two tests I thought ‘Fantastic two of the best teams in the world meeting on South African soil’ but it brings in a whole lot of other complexities and we spoke about altitude and people underrate altitude.

“People wondered why the All Blacks faded in the last 15 minutes in Johannesburg, I reckon it was the altitude. Then our second tier came on maybe weren’t as good as our first tier of players.

“In Cape Town, I reckon it was the size, we just physically weren’t big enough to continue winning our share of possession.

“I do expect the All Blacks to win each game and I couldn’t confess that I think the Springboks will win in Johannesburg, I said the Springboks will go in his favourites but I said we’ll win in Cape Town and I was hoping like hell we were going to win in Cape Town but when I saw the team announced I thought the chances were unlikely.”