What NICK MALLETT had to say on SuperSport about the Springboks’ 16-16 draw with the All Blacks in the Rugby Championship in Wellington on Saturday.

This was just a brilliant result with hard work by the team. They were under the cosh a bit with the penalty count in the second half. But they came back at the end because they believed.

The crucial sub was Trevor Nyakane coming on. Frans Malherbe was puffing and as Trevor came on we started to get a bit of dominance at scrum at time. And it was a penalty at scrum time that gave us the opportunity to kick out, get a lineout and have an attacking play. Willie le Roux does a runaround and then there’s a beautiful chip by Cheslin Kolbe.

And who’s running up the middle? A guy with an engine that goes all day. Pieter-Steph du Toit. Thank goodness he didn’t touch the ball and Herschel Jantjies scored. Jantjies had a fantastic impact when he came on. Speed of service was excellent and his defence was good. He should retire right row because it isn’t possible for him to get any better.

What I liked about the Springbok defence was that they read the deep pass well and kept on pressing forward. I thought is was definitely a case of defences dominating both attacks because the Boks’ attack was also pretty static because they were knocked behind the advantage line by the All Blacks’ press defence and we did the same to them.

It was just two well taken opportunities, that chip for the Boks and the turnover for the All Blacks, that resulted in tries. It was a really tight game. And that’s what World Cup rugby is going to be all about. It’s literally going to be taking that one opportunity that comes your way and if you don’t take it you are going to be knocked out.

That’s the last time they play each other before the World Cup. How can you pick a winner when the previous three results were decided by two-point differences twice and a draw.

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