The All Blacks’ record loss to South Africa was blasted by New Zealand media and commentators on Sunday, with former captain Kieran Read asserting rugby’s most famous team lacked a “spine”.
Scrutiny on coach Scott Robertson and his team was intense following their late capitulation in Saturday’s 43-10 Rugby Championship Test in Wellington.
It was the heaviest defeat in all of New Zealand’s 658 Tests and prompted Read to condemn a lack of fight when the Springboks ran in four of their six tries in the final 18 minutes.
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“You’ve got to look at this All Blacks side and go, okay, there’s something not right there,” Read told Sky Sport.
“There’s something within that group when you’re able just to leak and leak. Where’s that spine that we want to see?”
A member of New Zealand’s 2011 and 2015 World Cup-winning side, Read said the current team cannot match the inspirational leadership of South African skipper Siya Kolisi.
Back-rower Kolisi played in the Springboks’ 24-17 loss to the All Blacks in Auckland last week, but was not wearing the armband.
Read said the way the visitors rallied around their “talisman” when he was restored as captain in Wellington was obvious.
“He is unifying that side and not only that, he’s unifying the country. He’s done it for a number of years,” Read said of the 2019 and 2023 World Cup-winning captain.
“The scoreline’s unbelievable to see and you can see how much it means to them. Like 43 points to 10, that is an absolute hiding.”
All Blacks legend John Kirwan told Sportscafe Media: “I feel physically sick, how do you think I feel? I want to vomit. South Africa smashed us.
“We didn’t come out at half-time, we just sent someone else out at half-time!
“The scrum dominated us, the lineout dominated us and we couldn’t catch the high ball. They played an expansive game.”
New Zealand media highlighted the inconsistent results since decorated former Canterbury Crusaders mentor Robertson succeeded Ian Foster last year.
Six losses from 21 matches is a record that would have been inconceivable during a dominant era under former coaches Graham Henry and Steve Hansen, from 2004 to 2019.
Sports writer Gregor Paul said New Zealand were now a clear level below their great rivals.
“Rarely, maybe never, have the All Blacks been beaten like this. They were annihilated,” Paul wrote in the New Zealand Herald.
“They were made to look like some ill-conceived analogue contraption trying to compete with the latest iPhone.
“The self-styled innovation leaders of the world game were blown off the park, and chunks were taken out of the legacy. Losing doesn’t do wholesale damage to the brand, but record defeats do.”
Jamie Wall wrote on the Radio New Zealand website: “What the hell was that? Just as the All Blacks felt they could calmly stride back into Wellington, after the last two tests there ended up as comfortable victories, the curse of the capital returned with a vengeance.
“If the successful French series followed by the loss to Argentina in Buenos Aires felt like one step forward and two steps back, then this was more one step forward only to fall off a cliff.”
Liam Napier in the New Zealand Herald wrote: “This one will hurt for many years to come.
“The nature of this deflating defeat, the largest against the Springboks at home, eclipsing the 30-16 defeat in 1978, sparks serious concerns and could leave deep scars.”
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