The All Blacks are at a loss to explain the way in which they fell apart to etch another tombstone in their Wellington graveyard.
In the immediate aftermath of their 43-10 defeat to the Springboks, the largest loss in All Blacks history, coach Scott Robertson and captain Scott Barrett struggled to comprehend what had transpired before their eyes.
One week on from defending fortress Eden Park, the All Blacks had the better of the first half before conceding five second-half tries and 36 unanswered points as unwanted records tumbled, to leave hordes of New Zealanders among the sold- out crowd departing well before the final whistle.
The All Blacks were confident they had reset from last week’s success but once the Springboks gained the upper hand, there was no stopping their relentless onslaught.
How did it unravel so badly?
“Not right at the moment,” Robertson replied when probed on what answers he had for the backward step that continues the deeply worryingly inconsistent theme of his tenure after the 1-1 Argentina tour.
“That’s something we’ll have to look at and we’ll have to find out pretty quickly because we’ve got a big Bledisloe coming.
“South Africa played incredibly well and took their opportunities. Congratulations to them. We’ll take it on the chin. They were clearly better in that second half.
“You get extremely disappointed because you put so much effort and work into the team, the culture, and you set yourselves up to dig in and show grit and then that happens. We couldn’t buy anything, couldn’t get anything happening, they just went on a tear. Congratulations to them.
“Of course something like that is going to hurt you.”
Robertson believed the game could, perhaps, have taken a different turn had Cheslin Kolbe not snaffled Billy Proctor’s pass for a first-half intercept.
Yet that had no impact on the All Blacks set piece falling apart, with the scrum conceding frequent penalties once the bench was injected and the lineout capitulating to hand the Springboks multiple chances to strike.
That is where Barrett fingered his frustrations.
“As a group you have to stick together,” he said.
“You have to look at your own game. And then it’s what’s going to give us the biggest shift. Right now it’s probably set piece.
“That’s front of mind. That’s where we thought we made a shift but they got energy from there and grew in confidence.
“In the second half, when you’re chasing, you play a bit more loose and push the play and it clearly didn’t come off, so it is disappointing.
“There will be some discomfort, clearly, but I’m sure this team will use that discomfort to bounce forward for the Bledisloe and finish this Rugby Championship strong.”
Defensively, the All Blacks must again make major improvements, too. Last week at Eden Park, the All Blacks met the Boks’ physicality head-on to disrupt their breakdown and pressure them into mistakes.
In Wellington, though, the Boks’ revamped and inexperienced backline ran riot in the second half to force the All Blacks into 46 missed tackles.
Composure was then absent as the hosts attempted to chase the game, with rash decisions and a lack of clinical finishing blowing any chance of mounting a comeback.
“It felt like at halftime we’d done enough but in the second half, they won the aerial battle, the scraps, [there were] too many penalties around the set piece,” Robertson added.
“We lost a couple of really big moments there and the game got away. If it was preparation, we would’ve seen the signs a bit earlier.”
With the Freedom Cup gone for another year, the Rugby Championship wide open and the Bledisloe Cup on the line, the pressure valve once again spikes as the scrutiny ramps up on Robertson’s coaching team to deliver a swift response.
They shouldn’t be back in this position, certainly not in the depths of their darkest defeat, but it’s becoming an all too familiar cycle.
“It’s tough, the boys are hurting that’s for sure,” All Blacks fullback Damian McKenzie said. “For us it’s about believing in ourselves. We know we’ve got a tight circle.
“We’re going to have a good look at ourselves and our performance, as you do after any game, win or lose. We’ll keep tight and move forward.”
Liam Napier is a Senior Sports Journalist and Rugby Correspondent for the New Zealand Herald. He is a co-host of the Rugby Direct podcast.