The scrums grabbed the headlines after Soweto, but this piece identifies four other pivotal moments that explain the result. Will Jordan's intelligent kick bouncing dead gifted the Boks a scrum that cascaded into Malcolm Marx's decisive try. Ardie Savea's injury — with the All Blacks 12-5 up and playing well — exposed a leadership depth problem that the Boks simply don't have; South Africa have captains and centurions all over the park, New Zealand don't yet. Leroy Carter's awful tackle attempt on Jesse Kriel killed all the momentum he'd just generated with his involvement in Jordan's try. And New Zealand's decision not to take three points after the Boks' second try left them with nothing on the board at half-time despite being marginally the better side — a failure of game management that the Boks, whose last World Cup was built on winning three matches by a single point, would never make.
The piece also raises the alarm on Australia's fly-half crisis, with Carter Gordon's injury leaving Les Kiss with no settled option behind him heading into a critical 12-month World Cup build-up window, and notes Union Bordeaux-Bègles' demolition of Racing as a reminder that French club rugby's top end is operating at a level that deserves serious attention in November.