Ethan Hooker was so drained and caught up in the euphoria of the Springboks' 29-24 win over the All Blacks at FNB Stadium on Saturday that he had to be told by a team official he'd been named man of the match.
"It was the last thing on my mind — I was so exhausted after 80 minutes and so happy that we won," said the left wing. "I was like, 'Flip, there's a man of the match'; it actually slipped my mind."
The victory gives South Africa a 2-1 series lead heading into next weekend's decider in Baltimore.
Hooker was busy throughout in difficult conditions, contesting high balls in a cold, swirling wind while also tasked with marking Will Jordan. He said the opposition's names carried little weight on match day. "I just focus on doing my job on the team. There are 23 of us, and on game day we all just give it our all — I'm not focusing really on who I'm playing against."
He credited the forward pack's second-half dominance as the turning point. "A lot of it came from scrum dominance. We really did get the ball rolling there, and then we got our contestable kicking game right, started getting our ball back quite a bit. We got our structures in place and just built momentum from there. And the crowd helped a huge amount — as soon as you start getting momentum, the crowd joins and it lifts you."
With the series still alive, Hooker says the squad is already shifting focus. "It's going to be a neutral venue, so it's going to be a bit different — we're not going to have 90,000 odd people screaming for us."