Split squads ends up costing Boks in heavy All Blacks defeat

The split squad plan of the Springboks did not work in their favour at all and ended up costing them dearly after a heavy 35-20 defeat against the All Blacks in their Rugby Championship clash in Auckland on Saturday.

The Boks sent 13 players to New Zealand early to get better acclimatised and be fresher for the game, nine of which started the match and one played off the bench.

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But it seemed like the players who had played against the Wallabies the previous weekend looked much sharper and put in a better showing than most of the players who arrived in New Zealand close to a week before them.

“Maybe there was a little bit of over-eagerness from some of the guys and some of them seemed short of game,” admitted Bok coach Jacques Nienaber after the match.

“You could see the guys that played in the game last weekend came on in the second half and they were a little bit more battle-hardened since they had been exposed to rugby. Not that we are looking for any excuses.”

The gamble seemed to pay off when the Boks did the same thing in 2019, with them drawing against the All Blacks on that occasion, with them going on to win the Rugby Championship that year.

Spectacularly imploded

However, on this occasion it spectacularly imploded as a disastrous start that saw them 17-0 down within the first 16 minutes, and a 20-3 deficit at halftime, proved way too much to overturn despite a much improved second half showing.

“The start wasn’t ideal for us. I felt we struggled to get into the game because of poor discipline. Four consecutive penalties and a lot of mistakes compounded by four or five missed tackles and against a quality side like New Zealand they will capitalise on that,” explained Nienaber.

“They did that, and we played catch-up for the rest of the game. We can’t start like that with penalties and errors, probably some of them unforced and some from the pressure exerted on us, and if you’re going to play catch-up it’s going to be tough to get a foothold.

“I don’t think it’s a thing that we regularly start badly – no one goes out to have a poor start and say, ‘let’s save ourselves for the second half’. Sometimes it happens; sometimes you make a mistake or two and are on the back foot. We knew what was coming we just didn’t handle it.

“Having said that, I’m proud of the way we came back. We scored 17 points in the second half but unfortunately the damage was done in the first half.”

 The Boks now have a week break before concluding their Rugby Championship campaign against Argentina at Ellis Park at the end of the month.