Graham Henry, the All Black coach, is an experienced campaigner and he decided to leave 11 of his first-choice players at home. When one looks at the side that played then you realise how much talent the Kiwis have when it comes to back-line players. This week, the centre pairing was Sonny Bill
Williams and Richard Kahui, with Ma'u Nonu on the bench. Conrad Smith and Nonu seems to be Henry's preferred choice with Sonny Bill coming off the bench.
Robbie Freuen, who was Sonny Bill's centre pairing and outstanding for the Crusaders, is playing for his club. On the wings they also have a massive amount of talent with Sivivatu and Rocococo staying at home. In the forwards, however, they don't have as much depth and that showed on Saturday when the All Black pack was under pressure for the first time this year.
So let's talk about the win and what it means to both sides a couple of weeks before the World Cup 2011 kicks off. Let's start with the Boks, who needed this win more than the Kiwis did. The Springbok pack played the best rugby they have played all season and the timing could not have been better. The
scrums were particularly impressive and that is where the foundation was laid. The outstanding players in the pack were Bismarck du Plessis and Heindrich Brussouw. These two players had a hand in a couple of turnovers that snuffed out potential tries for the All Blacks. Brussouw in particular was immense and deserved the Man Of The Match award. It would have been interesting to see what would have happened if McCaw had been playing.
I wonder what Jake White was thinking of his now-famous quote: "The only fetcher I need is my kids to fetch me a beer from the fridge." The modern game needs a fetcher more than ever and Brussouw will be crucial in our quest to become the first team ever to win back-to-back World Cups. One concern for me is that we did not look comfortable in attack and seemed to rely on the kick-and-chase game, which brought us so much success in 2009. Fourie du Preez and Morne Steyn are both vital players in this pattern of play and both of them delivered the goods on Saturday. This win will do wonders for our confidence and take some pressure of our beleaguered coach. Only time will tell if the kick-and-chase game will win the World Cup or not.
The All Blacks, on the other hand, had nothing to lose and they will be heartened by the fact that they cut up our defence, seemingly at will. If their execution had been more accurate they could have scored four tries. They will go back to New Zealand feeling that they have given a whole lot of players an opportunity and they have more clarity as to their final squad. One thing is for sure and that is that without Dan Carter their chances of winning the World Cup diminish substantially. P Divvy has taken a lot of flak for resting his senior players, but maybe there is some method in that madness and maybe he is going to be the one saying "I love it when a plan comes together".
Hundreds of Bok fans flying across to New Zealand will be praying that there is a plan and that the Boks will bring the cup home. I will most certainly be one of them.
