Aisle be Back: Flushing the Dunny

South African fans celebrate the second test in Wellington last weekend. 

• By Kevin McCarthy

You may or may not work somewhere that people gather to do the daily newspaper quiz.

Here’s a Rugby Championship 2025 version.

1. Which team blew a lead at halftime and lost at home in a historic result.
2. Which team in losing, scored no second half points and conceded five tries in the second 40.
3. Which team successfully has flushed the dunny and moved on.

And the answers are:

1. South Africa and New Zealand;  2)  South Africa, New Zealand; 3) South Africa.

Sorry to remind you, as you wallow in the disturbing Wellington second half, where the All Blacks suffered a record defeat, coughing up 43 points, including a veritable late avalanche.

Personally, it’s the first time I had to turn the TV off on the All Blacks – and that was only when they’d conceded 24 points!

Then I got over it. And what helped was to watch the opening match of the first round of the championship. Where a slick Bok attack ran up a 22-nil early lead, and then never looked like scoring again as Australia scored 38 unanswered points.

Sound familiar? I don’t know how the home fans greeted that result. I don’t imagine they gathered in a friendly kumbaya.

The Boks reverted to their more conservative template and eked out a hard won second round victory against the Wallabies.

The next two rounds, you know well.  Eden Park defended, and Wellington ruthlessly pillaged.

Blame it on near term amnesia, but the Boks have not in the balance had a great championship. However, a scintillating second half display has been enough to wipe the memory banks, having people raving about the new-style Boks that actually run the ball.

So, in three games, the Springboks have both expunged their bad vibes and rewritten their season. The All Blacks however will probably carry the scars a lot longer, even into 2027.

I would venture we should be hitting the dunny button as well, because that collapse can’t be allowed to haunt the team. Fix the scrum, fix the lineout, fix the aerial game,  fix the backline mix, fix the leadership. You choose your favourite.

Don’t, however, hit the panic button and jettison players as a kneejerk.  They’re ones on the field, but Scott Robertson and his coaches need to broaden their horizons about how their All Blacks cope with adversity and different opposition game plans.

If they can’t, then the knives will begin to sharpen.

++++++

On to things much more exciting – the Black Ferns.

The semis as you will know are starting this Saturday, 6am New Zealand time.

New Zealand play Canada – England the next day play France.

Neither of these matches are foregone conclusions.

Time to bring back the good vibes from the Eden Park world cup final, because this is going to be like Everest for the Ferns to scale.

But they said that last time, too.