Boks vs All Blacks First Test - AB intent cemented in the first 7 minutes

I'm watching the game a second time as time allows. The first 7 minutes is interesting. We see the All Blacks finding space wide of the Bok defense three times in this period, twice with Vaai edging - a foreshadowing of the Moorby try a little later.

The you also have this sequence: ruck clearance first to De Groot who carries to tie up two Bok fatties (Wiese & Ox), then quick ball from Roigard skips three ABs to find Jacobson, nailed by Nortje. Note that Nortje was defending next to the previous ruck and has to fan about 15m across to get to Jacobson. The Bok loosies PDiv and PSDT are already struggling to cope with the quick shift wide as Love goes in to aggressively clear Sacha away from Jacobson, shifting the entry point which ends up blocking PDiv and PSDT leaving a gap for Ardie to run into. He feeds Roigard who steps PSDT and Wilco to set up another ruck, quick clearance sees Jordie with the cutout to Vaai ranging wide in space on the touchline for the second time in the first 7 minutes (third pic in the above sequence). He's taken into touch with good cover by Eben but already the ABs have found space wide of the Bok defense three times either with quick hands or the cutout pass. It is also of course from this position that the ABs score their first try.

After the first AB try we have a terrific kickoff into the 22 by Sacha, equally excellent chase by Willemse catching man and ball and the ABs have to clear under pressure.

We play a little under advantage, then get a penalty which goes to lineout. Maul. PSDT over the gainline with a quick carry...and now we see the first instance of Williams under pressure, and it's not his fault. There is a big cleanout of the breakdown by three Boks straight off their feet. Since everyone just dove over Williams is completely exposed at the back as he collects and is tackled by Taylor, his pass misses Ox, the intended receiver, but rolls into Wilco's hands.

All is well though as we set it up, first quick ball Williams to Wiese, another quick ball from that breakdown despite a bit of AB interference to Esterhuizen who bulldozes Moorby to score the Boks only try. Why we don't play the ball quickly like this more often and use someone like Esterhuizen and even Wiese is a mystery.

More to come as I go, Lions game coming up.

This is a great thread, Pakie. I've been doing some video analysis of my own. Rather than starting a separate thread, do you mind if I post some of my thoughts here as well? I really appreciate what you've put together, and it'd be nice to pool our post-game analysis in one place.

So the first Jordan try. We have PdV and Williams marking 3 ABs on the blindside. Dud Toit and Dud Allende are on the open side, next to each other, literally marking nobody. But there is no urgency to add to the blindside. Williams is in a no win situation, if he comes inside to mark AB2 and Jordan is unmarked. So he lingers between the 2 men he is marking…beaten by a bullet pass from Rooigard. Not his fault.

The try by Moorby. Williams is marking Vaa’i who breaks his open field tackle and offloads to Moorby.
Dud Toit has the angle but can’t sense the danger, so he is running at 70%. Finally the penny drops and he tries to accelerate. But he’s just not fast enough and he misses the tackle. Try scored

Another bit of complete BS….the Boks have a great shot at the line after a cool Sacha pick up of an errant Esterhozen pass. Marx literally drops the ball, Barrett is nowhere near it but he gets credit for stopping the try. These rugby commentators/journalists are clueless