‘Where’s the leadership’: Justin Marshall reacts to All Blacks’ ‘worrying’ defeat

Former New Zealand halfback Justin Marshall has questioned the All Blacks’ leadership after their “worrying” 35-7 loss to South Africa ahead of next month’s Rugby World Cup.

It was one of the darkest days in the history of the All Blacks. Playing against the world champion Springboks at Twickenham on Friday, the New Zealanders fell to a record-setting defeat.

First-half tries to Siya Kolisi and Kurt-Lee Arendse set the tone for the Boks, but a red card – which was the result of two yellow cards – to Scott Barrett was the final nail in the All Blacks' coffin.

Much to the surprise of commentator Justin Marshall, the All Blacks continued to make the same mistakes time and time again during the second term as they succumbed to a disastrous defeat.

“I was really surprised to be honest, mate, that the All Blacks struggled the way they did,” Marshall said on The Platform. “They pretty much got ambushed by a side that came out super physical, super committed, was massively positive.

“I think I said during the commentary that Siya Kolisi turned down many kicking opportunities to try and accumulate points which sometimes South Africa tend to do to go for more.

“Eventually that led to obviously yellow, red cards, and the All Blacks just not being able to maintain the intensity that South Africa brought to the game.

“We’ve spoken for the last two weeks, three weeks mate that we needed to get our number one side out there, and needed to go out there and flex our muscles and make a statement about intent of Rugby World Cup.

“Credit to Ian Foster he named a full-strength side to a degree but they just weren’t up for it. They just mentally weren’t there and I can’t understand why.”

With coach Ian Foster at the helm, the All Blacks recorded big wins over Argentina, South Africa and Australia on their way to another Rugby Championship crown last month.

The All Blacks also claimed the Freedom Cup and Bledisloe Cup as they charged into last Friday’s Test on the back of four wins from as many starts. They looked good, very good to start their international season.

But that’s what made the 35-7 scoreline so surprising. Nobody expected the Springboks to inflict such pain and despair about the All Blacks and their supporters, but records are made to be broken.

“There’s been too much read into how well the All Blacks went in The Rugby Championship in terms of how far they had come,” Marhsall added.

“I certainly feel that South Africa really did their homework. They looked at what happened to them at Mt Smart, they brought a completely different style of defence… they were a different beast.

“When you get that in the opposition, and there is a change in their DNA and the way that they’re playing, then you’ve got to recognise that really quickly and adjust and that’s exactly what the All Blacks didn’t do, they did the opposite.

“They looked stunned, they looked shocked, they looked clueless as to how they could find a way to break down the aggressive line speed that South Africa brought.”

Coach Foster named a near full-strength side to take on the Boks, too, which is “worrying” going into the Rugby World Cup.

All Blacks Brodie Retallick and Shannon Frizell missed the Test due to injury, but the rest of the starting side was practically at full strength.

“The All Blacks, which is worrying…the side they put out was full of experience, been to World Cups before, there’s enough personnel out there to know, ‘Okay, the opposition is doing this to us, we’ve got to adjust, we’ve got to adapt’ (and) didn’t.

“That’s the thing that really bemused me; the fact they weren’t able to combat it and just simply continued to do the same things that revolved around them making the same mistakes and getting themselves under the same pressure and huge ill-discipline because they weren’t coping.

“Where’s the leadership?”