The Springboks lifted South Africa into rugby heaven with a magnificent performance in beating the All Blacks 43-10 in Wellington.
Here’s how the players rated
15. Aphelele Fassi – 6. Stopped a certain try when he attempted an intercept. Good in the air. Off injured after 35 minutes.
14. Cheslin Kolbe – 9. Brilliantly taken interception try. Should have had another earlier but for Jordie Barrett dislodging the ball over the line. Took his second try superbly. Excellent in the air.
13. Canan Moodie — 8. Solid on defence out wide. Played with skill and composure beyond his years.
12. Damian Willemse — 9.5. Blistering Player of the Match performance. Led the backline from inside centre superbly. Great footwork, grubber kicking, and passing. Scored a cracker of a try.
11. Ethan Hooker — 9. Excellent tackling. Strong surges with the limited ball he got. Some great takes in the air. A brilliant break late in the game. A star is born
10. Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu – .6. Nifty hands, nice grubbers, a missed touch. Unfortunately off injured after 19m.
9. Cobus Reinach — 8. Slight knock-on at base of ruck caused RG Snyman’s try to be disallowed. Some darting runs. Excellent box kicking. Clever game management
8. Jasper Wiese — 8.5. In his comeback game, he was a raging bull with ball in hand and with his thunderous tackling.
7. Pieter-Steph du Toit – 9.One of the hardest workers on the field. Tireless carries and defensive contributions. Mr Reliable stood up when it mattered so much to his team
6.Siya Kolisi – 8. Excellent break that led to Kolbe’s second try. Made countless tackles and did good work at the breakdown
5. Ruan Nortje – 8.5. Busy around the park and did exceptional work in fixing the lineouts. Superb steal of an All Black lineout throw led to Willemse’s crucial try.
4. Lood de Jager – 6. A very good cover tackle and was looking good, but off injured after eight minutes
3. Thomas du Toit — 7.5. Scrummed powerfully and was busy in open play
2. Malcolm Marx – 7. Overthrew his first lineout throw but got better and better as the game went on. Unfortunate to be tackled early with the tryline in front of him. Some strong runs
1. Ox Nché – 8.5. The scrum anchor was in fine form. Dominant in set-pieces and worked hard in open play. Put a lot of pressure on Lomax. Some bullocking runs.
Notable replacements
RG Snyman — 8. Well-taken try shortly after replacing injured De Jager, only for it to be disallowed. Gave away a silly penalty. Excellent in the lineouts. Barnstorming run for his try.
Manie Libbok — 8. Some well-weighted up-and-unders, a couple of passes went behind players. He was successful with six out of seven shots at goal. Ran the attack slickly.
Wilco Louw — 9. Came on and won a scrum penalty immediately. Followed it up with another, and then one more for good measure. The strongest scrummager in the world. Exceptional performance.
Andre Esterhuizen — 9. A huge game from the prime slab of Klerksdorp beef. Made excellent game-management decisions. Flattened many an All Black. Ran through Beauden Barrett to score a wonderful try.
Kwagga Smith — 9. The ultimate impact player. He did not put a foot wrong and did plenty right, including finishing superbly for his try
Grant Williams — 8.5. Wonderful performance from one of the fastest players in the world. Great cover tackle on Barrett to prevent a try.
