men’s division
global stage
A mixture of outstanding defensive work from the All Blacks and squandered offensive chances prevented the Springboks from converting their territorial dominance into points at Ellis Park last weekend, leading to a 33-16 defeat.
Coming off a shaky 17-10 victory over Argentina, South Africa’s combined total of only 33 points across their last two fixtures represents their lowest scoring output over a two-match span since the beginning of Rassie Erasmus’ tenure in 2018.
Even though they controlled both the scrum and the gain line, the Springboks held a mere one-point advantage at the break. Their excessive turnovers and wasteful handling of the ball eventually proved costly as the All Blacks stepped up their intensity during the second period.
The outcome might have been entirely different had Malcolm Marx not dropped the ball under pressure from Jordie Barrett in the 36th minute with the try line wide open, or if Feinberg-Mngomezulu had opted to recycle possession rather than kicking a crossfield pass directly out of bounds.
Aside from Cheslin Kolbe’s efforts off the tee, South Africa’s solitary reward for their hard work was a 16th-minute try from versatile substitute Andre Esterhuizen, who chose to back himself and charge for the line rather than passing to his teammates on either flank.
South Africa
New Zealand
The Springboks penetrated the opposition ‘red zone’ on ten occasions at Ellis Park but failed to score in nine of those visits, relying on Kolbe’s penalty kicks to keep them in touch before the All Blacks pulled clear with a lethal performance in the second half.
South Africa averaged a mere 0.7 points per entry across those ten incursions into the opposition’s 22-meter area, marking their first drop below the one-point-per-visit threshold in more than two years. Out of 66 matches monitored since Opta began tracking this metric in 2020, this has occurred only three times.
Predictably, they suffered defeats in both previous matches where they failed to average at least one point per entry, though their loss to Ireland in July 2024 was by just a single point (25-24), despite managing a meager 0.43 points per visit from seven separate incursions.
On that day, eight successful penalties from Handre Pollard seemed to have secured the victory, only for a last-minute drop goal by Ciaran Frawley to snatch the win for the Irish.
The remaining instance took place during a 30-17 loss to Australia in Brisbane in 2021. A sluggish offensive effort yielded only a single try, scored by center Lukhanyo Am soon after the restart, resulting in an average of 0.8 points across ten penetrations into the Wallabies’ 22.
