After losing captain Ardie Save, center Quinn Tupae and openside Luke Jacobson to injury after the third Test, changes were expected for the fourth Test.
Although Savea is indispensable as a one-on-one player, he was not expected to be All black people it would fail that much in the final test with the changes.
There seems to be no progress with the high ball issues, while the inability to recover from a single error persists, with a cascade of errors contributing to huge momentum swings.
The All Blacks once again got off to a poor start despite having the kick-off. They conceded a penalty for offside after one phase, which called the Boks all the way in, and quickly conceded the three points.
After that shaky start, they began to dominate the Boks and the signs were promising.
They scored the first try to Codie Taylor after Damian McKenzie’s line broke down the left. The full-back decided to hold the ball instead of trying to link up with a wide open Cam Roigard inside, he decided to be patient and Roigard produced a great pass for Taylor to get into space in the next phase.
Up 7-3, the All Blacks had the momentum and earned 22 more tackles. Smart long shot by Roigard from midfield South Africa deep, and the clearance shot failed to get through from the 22nd.
This was a pivotal moment. The All Blacks struggled throughout the series to strike back to back. When given the opportunity to take command of a two-plus point game, they routinely blew it. Not only that, they would find a way to give an advantage to the opposite side.
In the first stage, Wallace Sititi crashed hard on the line just 10 meters out. The Boks were under pressure, and the defensive line wavered. Pieter-steph du Toit was on the ground to the right of the hand without a defensive post.
Roigard instead went left, switched to Moorby, who then attacked the weaker side where Du Toit got to his feet again, but Moorby coughed up possession in contact.
A missed opportunity. Not only that, the Boks quickly countered wide, grubbered him and the All Blacks were caught outside their own 22. McKenzie, instead of clearing deep, attempted a cross that went through the hands of Anton Lienert-Brown to touch on the free.
In 60 seconds, they lost complete control over the territory and property. McKenzie’s all-or-nothing shot came to nothing. It’s terrible test rugby. There is a time and a place, and this is not it, when the team just jumped 70 meters.
Their reward for not letting up the pressure was 12 phases of Springbok power, which ended with a Damian de Allende try. South Africa took a 10-7 lead and the All Blacks were not going to give it back.
Compounding bad moments is a habit of this All Black team. It’s not just about Moorby’s expensive turnover; that’s all that happens after. I can’t shake off a bad moment and stay in the grind.
The next thing McKenzie did after that cross-field kick was cough up the rebound on the ensuing kickoff after De Allende’s attempt.
McKenzie obviously has a lot going for him, but he’s currently playing his way out of the All Black team. In form for South Africa, he would have been dropped. Even when he does something good, like breaking the line, he can’t seem to make the right decision or execute the next part. It’s never clinical. It’s never clean. It’s a mess and often expensive. Even back to Sharks warm-up game, one potential try was denied with McKenzie in charge of the finish and almost another.
The biggest play of the game came after a McKenzie line break, where McKenzie and Moorby stood around protesting instead of tackling Arendse after coughing up the ball. They teach children to always play the whistle. Do these All Blacks need to be taught like children again?
Tana Umaga’s defense will soon come under scrutiny. It’s passive, the line moves disjointedly, and they give up so much ground. The will to tackle and win collisions was not in this All Blacks team in Baltimore.
Umagin was appointed with optimism and fanfare, but the reality is that he coached the worst defensive unit in Super Rugby Pacific. Their negative differential of 291 points was a whopping 148 points more than the next worst, Drew at -143. Even when they finished 7th in 2025, they finished with the second worst points difference.
To illustrate the defensive frailty, after Arendse took a long Mo’unga clearance close to the touchline and found Willemse, the passive D just let them dictate terms.
Moorby stepped away from the situation, playing passively, while Tupou Vaa’i, who turned blindside, missed the first attempt. Willemse cuts back to Arendse, who opens up the disjointed forwards 50 yards out. These players with time and space will kill you, and they did just that.
Mo’unga, who took the kick in clearance, had to force the cover to attack. By the time they actually set up a decent line, they were 10 meters from their try line. It’s too late. On this occasion they were spared when Du Toit was asked about the closure.
Tupou Vaa’i has regressed as a player on this tour, and the move to No.6 is part of that. Two years ago, he was the All Blacks’ best forward in South Africa and in the conversation for the best lock in the world. In Baltimore, he missed five tackles, called expensive penalties and was a net negative contributor for the team.
Every player goes through dips in form, and it’s sad to see Vaa’i lose his competitive drive and passion. The bottom line is that he is not #6.
The missed tackles come from scrum coverage, where he can’t cover the back because he doesn’t have the speed to close the space. Willemse’s miss was a scrum cleaning kick from the line of scrimmage; a miss by scrumhalf Van den Berg came straight from the scrum, costing a huge line break and leading to a try by Du Toit.
The All Blacks lost possession on the right touchline and Vaa’i was responsible. Waa’i, after making an early pass to Will Jordan, ran over him and was then unable to clear effectively.
The counter-hand was effective and South Africa won the ball. It’s the same problem Roigard was penalized for ripping the ball away from Du Toit on the side. After all, they never should have lost that lunch contest. The evidence is clear that Vaa’i cannot play No.6, especially against the Springboks.
Chiefs players are under the microscope more closely than any other All Black. Fair or unfair, no one can forget 60-5 whenever they play. It is etched in the memory of all who watched.
A team that loses 60-5 is a team that quit. That stopped. The All Blacks are full of those players at the moment, so it’s hard not to question the selections when you see them repeating the same behaviors that got them axed in the Super Rugby final.
To be fair, Quinn Tupaea was a top 13, Luke Jacobson proved many doubters wrong despite the odd stretch of ill-discipline, and Wallace Sititi stood up during the series, but the rest left a lot to be desired.
Please prove it New Zealand wrong, as the tour of South Africa showed many of them Bosses the players are not up to it.
