Head coach Ian Foster and skipper Sam Cane says the All Blacks will be staying positive, while praised the Springboks, after the world champions thrashed the Kiwis on Friday.
The Boks produced one of the most dominant performances in their rivalry with New Zealand to claim a record 28-point victory at a sold-out Twickenham on Friday night.
New Zealand had to play more than half the match a man down when Scott Barrett was sent off shortly before the break for a second yellow card after the lock flew into a ruck and clattered Bok hooker Malcolm Marx in the head.
South Africa made their advantage count, with 20-year-old Canan Moodie, making his first Test start at centre after being moved from the wing, one of several South African backs who impressed following a dominant display by the pack.
New Zealand’s defeat topped their two previous worst losses, 21-point defeats to Australia in 1999 (28-7) and 2019 (47-26).
Speaking post match, Foster told reporters: “You couldn’t help but be impressed with what they did. They really got stuck into us.
“I thought their physicality and particularly their set piece, they obviously had a massive game up front, lineout time, scrum time, and that was the big difference.
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“I think both teams deserve a lot of credit, they put a lot into that game and it was a great spectacle.
“Two weeks out from a World Cup I think it’s going to prepare us both really, really well but it was a massive performance I thought by South Africa and they really deserve a lot of credit for it.”
“You’ve got to be at your best,” said All Blacks coach Ian Foster, whose team managed a late try through replacement back Cam Roigard. “I thought they were and we weren’t.”
But Foster tried to downplay this result’s significance by saying: “The reality is, if you could choose one trophy that wasn’t in your cabinet at the end of the year, it would be that one [Friday’s match trophy].”
Foster, who now takes his squad to Germany for a pre-World Cup camp, added: “It’s not going to dampen us in what we’re doing, but we certainly got an uppercut today.”
Cane, who like Barrett also received a first-half yellow card as the All Blacks were temporarily reduced to 13 men, urged his team to learn from a chastening defeat.
“We can use this and find some good from it, even though it stings at the moment,” said the 31-year-old flanker.
Photo: Ian Kington/AFP