Saturday’s game proved that times have changed. This time last year, the All blacks beat the Boks 19-0 in Newlands with a clinical perfomance that saw the boks with no answers. Yet now we see a complete turnaround in fortunes as the boks played smart, intelligent rugby that the All Blacks could not keep up with and thus won 28-19. I believe the boks won because of 4 important aspects.

1)Good tactical kicking by playing in opposition’s territory. Credit must go to Ruan Pienaar, Fourie Du Preez and Frans Steyn who all made sure that the boks did not have to play too much rugby in their own half. This was an intelligent strategy and credit must go to the coaching staff for that.

2)The boks managed to slow down New Zealand ball dramatically and this is where Heinrich and Juan Smith must be commended. They teamed up to nullify Mr Rugby McCaw. For Heirich to get the Man of the Match award when facing the world’s finest flanker is a feat and he surprised even the most ardent Bok fans. 

3)The dominance showed by the bok forwards in the line-outs and the use of the driving maul was of top class quality. Here, all credit goes to Victor Matfield who seemed to know 90% of the NZ calls in the lineouts and stole some key lineout ball. The scrums were very much 50/50 with both sides winning on their own put in. John Smit passed the test versus world class opposition in the form of Tony Woodcock. The Beast must be commended for his work in the loose play and once again, his combination with the captain is proving to be a master stroke because John Smit is a prop who likes the tight play while Beast likes the open play. They are 2 very different props in the way they play but clearly combine well when on the park together.

4)The boks had many players who played as if their lives depended on it. Mention must be made of Brian Habana who spent the whole afternoon chasing kicks and putting in 1st time tackles. The value of Bakkies Botha and Juan Smith is not always visible when they are on the park but only when they are not playing. They both cleared out at the breakdown like demon possessed men. All the hard work that is not seen on camera adds up and at the moment, the boks have a good mix of players with flair and a few who are just good old hard grafters and get the job done behind the scenes.

Overall, the All Blacks had no answer for the boks and if Ruan had not kicked like a 120 year old granny, the score line would have been similar to the Newlands test in 2008, only this time, Peter De Villiers is the winner and Graham Henry finds himself with more questions than answers. For next week, I do not see much changing. The All Blacks are a good and gutsy side but they are facing a team that has been together since 2004, full of confidence, next to a coaching team that is improving by the day and with a Durban crowd that will be fully behind the men in green. The All Blacks will need a miracle in the 2nd test because on Saturday they were 2nd best by more than the flattering 9 points margin that they got due to the boks’ poor place kicking.

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