Coach Rennie hails clinical All Blacks after Springboks Test win / Photo: © AFP
Coach Rennie hails clinical All Blacks after Springboks Test win
New Zealand head coach Dave Rennie pinpointed clinical finishing as a key factor in a shock 33-16 win over arch rivals South Africa on Saturday in the first Test of a four-match series.
"The Springboks are the best team in the world at converting 22-entries into points at 5.3 per entry. Tonight, they were 0.9 and we were 3.7. That's a big stat," he told reporters.
South Africa took a 12 Test winning streak to Ellis Park in Johannesburg, but failed to translate pressure into points through handling errors and stout defending by the All Blacks.
Rennie said he was concerned that "we were under the pump a fair bit, it was frustrating that we kept giving them entries into our 22".
After seeing his side pushed back at several scrums in the first half, the head coach hailed the set-piece improvement after the break.
"We were solid at scrum time in the last 30 minutes and I was really happy with the forward effort," he said.
Before taking charge of New Zealand last March, Rennie won three of four Tests when coaching Australia against South Africa.
"That was an absolute arm wrestle. We defended and defended and we were then clinical when we got our opportunities," said captain and No. 8 Ardie Savea.
South Africa head coach Rassie Erasmus said the Rugby World Cup holders made a host of errors and wasted key chances before a capacity 62,000 crowd.
"We lost the ball over the line and then had three scrum penalties in a row. When awarded the third penalty, we could have taken the three points to level at 19-19," he said.
"There were two or three big moments like that where we let the game get away. New Zealand forced those errors on us, they were really intense and sharp.
"They had a clear tactic to strip us in the tackle. Normally they chop-tackle you or push you to the ground. So there was a lot of good work by New Zealand.
"It was disappointing not to be more clinical, but the All Blacks are great at knowing how to stop you in their 22.
"We have a lot of things to fix. We had a dominant scrum, but you don't just want to perform well in one area, you want to perform well in a few areas," added Erasmus.
P.King--VC
