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The way Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus and captain Pieter-Steph du Toit spoke after losing the first Test 16-33 at Ellis Park on Saturday night, the world champions were unprepared for the way the All Blacks played. New Zealand weathered the Boks’ early frontal assault at scrum-time to draw first blood in the four-match series. “They played a bit different than we thought they were going to play and I think that’s why they were better than us,” said Du Toit. Erasmus praised the All Blacks for their strategy of stripping the ball in tackles, which prevented hooker Malcolm Marx from scoring from a maul in the first half. The All Blacks make it happen on the set-piece 👏 — SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) August 22, 2026 Luke Jacobson gets their fourth of the night 🇳🇿💥 📺 Stream #RugbysGreatestRivalry on DStv: https://t.co/0P0NNhnwKw pic.twitter.com/H6IDMstM0z “They had a very clever tactic — again 100% legal — they were stripping in the tackle. “They didn’t tackle like we practised that we thought they would ... in this game they had a lot of strips, even the try or the non-try when we mauled the ball was stripped right over the tryline.” Erasmus refused to offer excuses, giving credit to New Zealand throughout the post-match press conference. “The ball wasn’t slippery, we can’t use that as an excuse. We’re not an inexperienced team … it’s probably the pressure that they put on us at those different loose play breakdowns and so on we didn’t do well. They did great.” The coach was disappointed that the Boks had failed to convert territorial advantage to points, but he also put that down to good play by the Kiwis. Trying to tackle Cheslin is like trying to tackle smoke 🤩🔥 — SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) August 22, 2026 📺 Stream #RugbysGreatestRivalry on DStv: https://t.co/0P0NNhnwKw pic.twitter.com/LBUkrqt9jL “That’s probably the thing which New Zealand are great at is that they really know how to stop you inside the 22 in different ways, being it stripping the ball, being it contesting for the ball on the ground, being it harassing the nine within the laws — I’m not saying they’re doing it outside the laws — and we couldn’t handle that … “I thought up until [the 50th] minute we were really dominating territory, possession and we felt we were really in the game. “But a class team like New Zealand, if you don’t convert, they give you a proper hiding.” The match ultimately came down to a few key moments, he said, referring to the try Marx didn’t score and the penalty kick the Boks didn’t take when they opted for a scrum in front of the All Black posts in the 56th minute, only to be penalised themselves. We were dominant there, but it doesn’t help you just in one part of the game. The All Blacks were probably dominant in most sections in the game. — Rassie Erasmus “There’s a lot of things that we didn’t convert it. But I think there’s two or three big moments which we just let the game get away from us … because New Zealand forced those errors onto us by being really intense and sharp ... “I don’t want to give excuses, New Zealand just did really well by keeping us out there.” While the Boks dominated the scrum for the first almost hour, it wasn’t enough, he pointed out. “We were dominant there, but it doesn’t help you just in one part of the game. The All Blacks were probably dominant in most sections in the game.” Erasmus didn’t want to promise that they would learn from their mistakes. “We didn’t have to learn from this. We knew what we had to do on the day and we didn’t do it … It’s not a wake-up call. There’s just so many things that we did wrong and that New Zealand did right.” TimesLIVE