Aisle be Back: All Blacks v South Africa 2.0

• By Kevin McCarthy

It’s hard not to be amazed by a 5 to 1 tryline margin from the first test of the series with South Africa.

Scarily clinical stuff.

But personally, the thing that stuck with me did not involve those five tries. It’s what happened afterwards.

Will Jordan dotted down. Muted reaction.

Josh Moorby then scored a beauty. He got up, shook his head, allowed himself a miniscule fist pump and wandered off with the demeanour of an undertaker.
Fabian Holland got a bit excited with his Inspector Gadget charge down, but not too much.

Luke Jacobsen powered across, taking the game away from the Boks – and was mobbed. But hey, big moment.

And finally, Will Jordan skipped across for the fifth try, and did a wee shout-out to the crowd. I think they’d earned that by then.

In short, there was much less of the modern game’s histrionics and hugfests.

Trivial yes, but also significant, because this was a team that wasn’t going to switch off and let the Boks in easily.

That has been the bane of the All Blacks in recent seasons. But Sunday morning was 80 minutes, especially when the Boks scrummed and scrummed and finally failed.

They would have expected the New Zealand line would fold eventually, just like other teams have, but not this time.

And so, onto Cape Town, with a modicum of confidence.

The All Blacks haven’t done too much yakking. Good. A limited rejig because of injury. No sign of the sort of over confidence that will be their undoing. Then again, over confidence is usually only identifiable after the event.

History says that only once has the team winning the first test of a South Africa v New Zealand series (three or more tests on tour) then gone on to lose the series. That was All Blacks, hosting the Boks in 1937.

I’ve only heard the old joke about that one. What was the finest rugby team to ever leave New Zealand? Why, it was the 1937 Boks.

One of the factors in their triumph was a fearsome scrum, which they used repeatedly.

And here we are, nearly 90 years later. A largely unchanged Bok side, that in theory will just need to execute the scoring opportunities that will come off another day of scrum dominance.

I’m going to repeat last week’s prediction and say the South Africans are the favourites. It would seem inconceivable they could go two-down at home, as the world champions.

Then again, only a few saw last week coming. All of which is what makes a proper test series so fascinating. Very little turnaround time, or to mull over a week ago – and that is just the pundits.

Avalon Junior Bower to start in second Test

Avalon junior George Bower starts at loosehead prop for the second test in Cape Town on Sunday morning.

The match-day 23 also features Ardie Savea (Ories) and Ruben Love (Wainuiomata) as starters and Asafo Aumua (Avalon), Peter Lakai (Petone) and Kyle Preston (OBU) on the bench.
Kick off is at 5.10PM local time (3.10AM Sunday 30 August NZT).

All Blacks match-day 23 (Test caps in brackets):

1.   George Bower (27)
2. Codie Taylor (110)
3.  Tyrel Lomax (52)
4.  Fabian Holland (13)
5. Tupou Vaa’i (48)
6.  Simon Parker (9)
7.  Luke Jacobson (28)
8.  Ardie Savea (110) – Captain
9.  Cam Roigard (21)
10. Ruben Love (9)
11. Leroy Carter (8)
12. Jordie Barrett (82)
13. Quinn Tupaea (27)
14. Will Jordan (58)
15. Damian McKenzie (78)

16. Asafo Aumua (23)
17. Xavier Numia (2)
18. Fletcher Newell (38)
19. Patrick Tuipulotu (57)
20.  Peter Lakai (11)
21. Kyle Preston (2)
22. Anton Lienert-Brown (91)
23. Josh Moorby (3)