The Springboks were not reading too much in their emphatic win against the All Blacks. Giving the All Blacks their most emphatic reality check ahead of the Rugby World Cup when claiming a record 35-07 victory at Twickenham on Friday.
Mounting attacking pressure from the outset, the Springboks were unrelenting, forcing errors throughout the 80-plus minutes of the contest in a performance that surpassed the record margin for South Africa over New Zealand of 17-0 in 1928.
Springbok coach, Jaques Nienaber said "After the last game against New Zealand we had to adjust a few things and we made some plans, the players came with some good suggestions, and the coaches as well. We found some solutions, some worked and others didn’t.
"But ultimately we don’t get a single point at the World Cup for tonight. I think New Zealand will feel the same. It is what it is, an opportunity to prepare for France, nothing more than that."
“This was a proper test, and it was exactly what we wanted before the World Cup,” said Nienaber. “Wales play a different style of rugby to New Zealand, who pride themselves on their high intensity and high tempo game, so it was good preparation for us.
“That said, we have hard work ahead before the World Cup. "We had a lot of opportunities in the first 20 minutes. In the whole game, we had eight scoring opportunities and were held up twice, so we’ll zoom in on that in Corsica and hopefully we can improve on that before our opening match.”
"In the World Cup, you get only four or five opportunities and you have to capitalise on them. That is something we will try and fix in the next two weeks."
Commenting on the late injury withdrawal of Willie le Roux, who was replaced by Kwagga Smith after battling to recover sufficiently from a knock to the ribs at training, which saw a seven-one split in favour of the forwards, Nienaber said: “It was an unfortunate incident and we didn’t want to risk Willie.
"The least risk for a bench is a 5-3 split to cover the most positions. 7-1 is a big risk, and we were fortunate tonight we did not get any backline injuries.
"It is something that we train for, with certain forwards to fulfil some roles in backline play. We have to plan for those scenarios with all the yellow cards that go around these days."
“It gave us a taste of how to manage things if we perhaps get an injury in a match. Obviously, the least risk would be selecting a five-three split, and a six-two split holds a little more risk, and then a seven-one split is the most-high risk.”