Planet Rugby's five-point breakdown of the 29-24 victory in Soweto centres on one overriding theme: the bomb squad finally delivered when it mattered most. After being outscored from the bench in both the Johannesburg loss and the Cape Town win, the Bok replacements answered the defining moment of the series — Jordan's 56th-minute try that put the All Blacks 17-12 up — with a 17-point blitz that effectively ended the contest. Kriel's solo effort broke the dam, but it was the bench's scrum dominance and the Marx maul try that confirmed a comprehensive series win on home soil despite the scoreboard suggesting something tighter.
The piece also digs into three other threads worth noting. The scrum narrative is nuanced — a dominant Bok set-piece was briefly undermined by Amashukeli's 'walking around' call that gifted the All Blacks a kickable penalty (Love missed), but the power surged back emphatically when it counted. Aumua's single lineout error proved disproportionately costly, directly gifting Arendse's try in a game the All Blacks might otherwise have controlled. And on the card front, the Boks were more resilient than in the first two Tests — conceding only seven points during Feinberg-Mngomezulu's sin-bin stint and coming away with a one-all yellow card count. With the Baltimore finale still to come, the series picture heading to the US is firmly in South Africa's favour.