All Blacks head coach Dave Rennie struck a tone of resilient pride following his side's narrow 33-26 defeat to the Springboks at DHL Stadium in Cape Town. Reflecting on an intense physical encounter that saw the four-match series deadlocked at 1-1, Rennie refused to let the squad become disheartened by their first loss of the tour. Instead, he highlighted the immense courage shown by his team when trailing late in the piece.
However, the post-match discourse quickly shifted into a fiery tactical debate. Rennie sparked a sharp reaction from South African counterpart Rassie Erasmus after publicly questioning the Springboks' scrumming movements, claiming that the local pack was walking around the set-piece to exploit technical vulnerabilities.
Despite trailing for the entire 80 minutes after South Africa’s explosive start, Rennie lauded his team's character under intense pressure. The All Blacks finished the game dynamically, scoring four tries to South Africa's three, and were agonisingly close to securing a late draw. Rennie was quick to credit the hosts while remaining incredibly proud of his squad's relentless fightback.
"But South Africa were good tonight. Now they're really physical, and yeah, stopped a lot of our momentum," Rennie admitted. He acknowledged that missed opportunities and early discipline in the first half proved to be the ultimate difference in what he described as a "game of inches". "Well, discipline... we gave away just way too many soft penalties, especially early in the game which is disappointing".
The primary talking point from Rennie’s press conference centred on the refereeing of the scrums by Angus Gardner. While Rennie noted that the set-piece had improved compared to the first Test at Ellis Park, he subtly accused the Springboks of using illegal angling. He noted that the Australian official put in a solid effort to monitor the alignment but insisted the problem persisted.
"The scrums were better tonight, I think Angus was pretty strong around setting a mark and then trying to keep the hookers in the same sort of spacing, and if the Springboks moved across further left then he stopped them," Rennie explained.
Even so, Rennie confirmed that his coaching staff would be sending technical clips to World Rugby to address the ongoing issue. "We'll give a bit of feedback around that; that's still a bit of an issue for us because they're able to walk around and go straight through our tighthead," he added.
Looking forward to the remaining legs of the series, Rennie pinpointed critical structural areas requiring immediate attention on the training paddock. He highlighted that the All Blacks' lineout set-piece struggled significantly inside the 22-metre area, giving away crucial momentum and letting the Springboks off the hook.
Furthermore, Rennie identified aerial defence as a critical vulnerability. He praised South Africa's tactical execution and noted that the All Blacks repeatedly struggled to clean up the precision high-ball assault, allowing the hosts to build pressure in point-scoring zones.