Schalk Burger's post-match analysis of the third Greatest Rivalry Test cuts to the heart of why the Boks were able to win despite a shaky opening 25 minutes — scrum dominance. His argument is that the All Blacks' high-tempo, ball-in-hand game is unsustainable when the set-piece is crumbling underneath it: errors accumulate late in matches, and when they happen against a dominant Springbok scrum, there's no safety valve. He points to the first-half scrum penalty and the penalty try as the two moments that swung the game.
Burger isn't letting the Boks off the hook either. He flags their defensive shape — going narrow, failing to fold, losing line speed — as a genuine concern that was only masked by the All Blacks' own execution errors in the second half. On the series decider in Baltimore, he's unambiguous: a 2-2 draw would feel like failure for this Bok squad, and the short turnaround, travel, and physical toll from three back-to-back Tests make the mental side the real challenge this week.