Blackadder and Ioane sent out a message to the Boks
The accepted theory is that as the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series goes deeper, so the Springboks will become stronger as the attrition rate catches up with the touring All Blacks and the South African depth comes through.
And to some extent this theory has fuel to sustain it, with All Black coach Dave Rennie having to work overtime on figuring out who should replace players who return home injured.
The latest touring player to cop it is the promising openside flank Anton Segner, who will travel with the squad to Cape Town and then, according to Rennie, fly home.
The injury to Josh Lord in the opening test match in Johannesburg last weekend necessitated what Rennie would have considered the unwanted situation of having to ask Patrick Tuipoluto, or Sam Darry, to back up his captaincy role by featuring in Saturday’s second test in Cape Town.
However, while injury reports and players returning home and needing to be replaced are occupying much of Rennie’s time as he plots what he hopes will be a second consecutive win over the Boks, the expectations of the All Blacks systematically running out of firepower may be overstated at this point.
And while the All Black reserve team, with Tuipoluto leading, were taken to the wire by a fired up 10Bet Lions team in the Tuesday midweek game at Ellis Park, there were enough individual performers in their 41-35 win, where they came from being 35-17 down to score four unanswered tries in the last half an hour, for the exercise to prove worthwhile for Rennie.
Maybe not for Saturday’s game at the DHL Stadium, aside of course for Tuipoluto coming through unscathed and maybe a few others who might find themselves in the wider test match squad, but for the two big games that follow at FNB Stadium and then in Baltimore to wind off the tour.
Rennie can’t expect to go the whole four matches with a similar, core team, and in that regard it was a happy coincidence that on the day that Segner was ruled out of the rest of the tour Ethan Blackadder should prove the outstanding player at Ellis Park.
He scored two tries of his own and was so omnipresent and influential in the come from behind win that he may even enter the conversation for the DHL Stadium game.
Reiko Ioane, the sometime wing who is excelling at outside centre with every tour outing, also had a big impact. If it had not been for Blackadder’s influence, the centre, who played URC rugby for Leinster in the last URC and Champions Cup season, would have been the star player.
– SuperSport.com
