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All Blacks Player Ratings v South Africa
By Sam Warlow
The All Blacks have gone down to the Springboks 36-34 in Wellington after conceding a record number of points at home and bombing a chance to steal the match late. Here's how they fared individually.
1. Karl Tu'inukuafe - 7
Again featured with ball in hand. Tidy scrum work. Can be happy with another solid performance in the black jersey.
2. Codie Taylor - 7.5
Showed off quick hands to set up early Ben Smith break. Handy at lineout time and scored a try to boot. Made his tackles.
3. Owen Franks - 6.5
Typical solid performance in the front row. Nothing stood out for better or worse.
4. Sam Whitelock - 6
Great work as a lineout target and had a couple of handy carries. Made his tackles also.
5. Scott Barrett - 5
A real mixed bag. Mishandled a pair of kickoffs and knocked on in contact close to the line. Redeemed himself by winning back another kickoff but ultimately failed to make a positive impact.
6. Liam Squire - 5.5
Penalised early and looked like he didn't want to be there after copping a stinger from a charging Frans Mahlerbe. Despite this, his seven tackles led the team.
7. Sam Cane - 6
Solid if unspectacular. Knocked on early inside the Springbok 22 but had a few nice moments around the breakdown.
8. Kieran Read - 7
Led from the front winning a pair of turnovers and making an impact with ball in hand.
9. Aaron Smith - 5.5
Started well with a key tackle on Aphiwe Dyantyi and great support line to score a try. Fizzled out after a couple of bad judgement calls and uncharacteristically slow delivery. Faf de Klerk had his number on more than one occasion.
10. Beauden Barrett - 4.5
Showed great hands early to put brother Jordie in for an early try. After that, tactical kicking was woeful and errant goalkicking may have cost the game. Definitely one to forget for Beaudy.
11. Rieko Ioane - 7
Scored a pair of tries including one effort a contortionist would be proud of. Opportunities were limited.
12. Ryan Crotty - 6
Fairly pedestrian performance in his comeback. Finished as the top tackling back but was shut down on the other end.
13. Anton Lienert-Brown - 5.5
Tested the line early and ran great supporting lines. Quick hands put Ioane away for a try but a bad read and intercept to Cheslin Kolbe cost the All Blacks seven points.
14. Ben Smith - 7.5
One of the All Blacks' best backs as per usual. Finished with 74 metres from eight carries and beat six defenders. Made a few key line breaks including a wrapping run to put away Aaron Smith.
15. Jordie Barrett - 6
Another Barrett mixed bag. Showed flashes of attacking potency early and ran an excellent line to score the first try of the match but a poorly judged quick throw-in cost a Willie Le Roux try under the posts.
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Latest Comments
I didn't mean to sound down on Dmac. Just looking hard at the bench sub's role of providing impact. I don't think he can do that at 15, and the bench is not really about injury cover anymore (you need to maximise it's use more than that).
He's my first choice of any New Zealander for the 10 jersey with the All Blacks.
Go to commentsAgreed. And I don't have much more to say on it, but I had been having one thought that sprang to mind at the tail of this discussion, and that is that it's not all about Razor.
It's not about any coach being "right". I think a lot of selections can become defense and while it doesn't really apply here I really enjoyed that Andy Farrell just gave into the public demands and changed out his team for the change that had been asked for. Like why not? This is the countries team, keep them engaged. The whole reason i've only just finished watching the game was because I wasn't interested in watching any of the selected players against a team like Italy (still actually enjoyed the first half with the contest Italy made of it).
Faz leap frogs a younger half back into start. He hands the golden child the game over July's golden child. He gives an old winger a go, a new flanker and hooker. None of them really did any good, certainly not enough to suggest they should have been promoted above others, but who cares? You won, and you gave the country what they wanted, that's all that matters after all. It's for the country, not the one in charge who thinks they have to have their own pied piper tune playing.
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