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Cape Town - Former coach Nick Mallett believes not one Springbok would make it into an All Blacks starting XV.
Mallett was speaking in the SuperSport studios after South Africa’s 57-0 drubbing at the hands of New Zealand in Albany on Saturday.
It was the worst defeat in Springbok history, eclipsing the 53-3 defeat to England in 2002.
“Today was by far the best game I’ve seen the All Blacks play the whole season. Whether that was because the ball bounced for them a bit in the first half, when the Boks made a couple of really stupid mistakes, I don’t know. They got off to a flyer and no team can give the All Blacks a start like that and expect to come back from it. If you have a bad start against New Zealand, you’re staring down the barrel,” Mallett said.
“Before this Test, I said I wondered how many Boks would make a combined South Africa-New Zealand team. I can tell you after this performance, not one. There isn’t a single South African who would make a combined All Blacks-Springboks side. I didn’t think there was one before the game, and there is certainly no chance of it after this game.
“We don’t have skilful players. The Springboks are a team that is trying without stars. This is a group of players who, for six games prior to this one, surpassed their talent, actually. But today they were just outclassed by a far better team.”
Mallett also lamented the lack of impact from the Springbok bench.
“We brought on replacements, but it didn’t help. I mean, Trevor Nyakane is a lovely rugby player, but he is not an international tighthead prop. South Africa ended up giving four or five scrum penalties away in the second half, from which the All Blacks absolutely murdered them.
“The Boks lost five lineouts on their own feed. That’s 10 first phases that you hand to the opposition. You can’t play against New Zealand and give them that many of your own first phases.
“In addition, we persisted with kicking downfield, which allowed them to counter-attack. And let’s not take away from the fact that they scored three very good forward tries with some good driving mauls. They varied their attack because they expertly spotted the Boks' weaknesses and exploited it ruthlessly.”
