Gregor Paul: The biggest All Blacks flaw that got exposed by the Springboks

Disappointed All Blacks players at the end of the match and loss to South Africa. Photo / Photosport

OPINION:

The All Blacks had what it took to storm the Bastille, but they don't yet have what they need to keep it.

The All Blacks of 2021 are vastly improved on their 2020 selves, but they are still to develop that critical ability to consistently win the crunch tests against the world's top tier talent.

Across 160 minutes of rugby, the Springboks exposed too many cracks in the All Blacks' set-up, none more patent, than at the set piece.

It was scrum and particularly lineout where there was daylight between the two teams and it was here, in these two-old fashioned arts, that the Springboks built their second test victory.

It may have looked throughout the second half that their dominance was at the tackled ball – that they were the smarter team at the modern art of winning collisions to poach turnovers, but that, too, stemmed from their domination at the set piece.

The set piece was like a computer virus for the All Blacks. The Springboks got their bug into the system as it were by outsmarting the All Blacks at the lineout and out-powering them at the scrum, and from there the malware travelled to the breakdown, to the collision and just about through the entire eco-system.

The All Blacks need a set piece system reboot. They came into the series with the Boks confident their scrum and lineout were in good shape.

They knew both would be targeted and having successfully diffused what they thought were robust and credible set piece assaults by the Wallabies and Pumas, the All Blacks were sure they were ready.

But some questions now will have to be asked. Scott Barrett has had a storming last five weeks where his ball carrying, athleticism and presence in open play have been impressive, but perhaps the All Blacks missed the aerial command of the absent Sam Whitelock.

The All Blacks were dominated at the lineout by the Springboks. Photo / AP

So too are they missing a genuine, back-row lineout forward. The last time the All Blacks played the Boks in 2019, they had Kieran Read to swing the aerial contest, the former skipper stacking as arguably the best lineout forward in the world game before he retired.

If the All Blacks want to play their preferred style of rugby against the likes of South Africa and the best Northern Hemisphere sides, they need to develop Akira Ioane's lineout work if he is indeed the man they now see as their preferred blindside.

And if not him, then they have to ensure that at least one of their loose trio in these clash of the titan encounters is equipped to fight in the air and stop the touchline being the All Blacks' enemy.

Just as obvious now is that they are going to have to ask some hard questions about the scrummaging prowess of all their front-row forwards.

By the last two scrums of the game, the All Blacks were in chaos, being shoved backwards at a rate of knots and were saved by the miraculous work of skipper Ardie Savea who somehow found a way to grab the ball at his feet and ram his personal gear level out of reverse into drive in spectacular fashion.

But the All Blacks know they can't compete, not seriously, if they have a scrum that is being crushed like that.

There is a gap in scrummaging quality between starting props Joe Moody and Nepo Laulala and those who come off the bench.

There are other areas of the All Blacks game that also need to be reconsidered – their attacking patterns lacked variation. Their work under the high ball was still not good enough for long enough and their tactical kicking isn't on point.

Fixing their set piece won't magically fix all of these problems, but it will go a long way to giving the All Blacks the platform they need to build flow and options into their attack.

Disappointed All Blacks players at the end of the match and loss to South Africa. Photo / Photosport

Midway through a World Cup cycle seems about the perfect time to have had this opportunity to gauge where they really sit and while the fix-it list seems long and daunting, the All Blacks shouldn't be too downhearted by their first loss of 2021.

The pressure the Boks exerted also exposed the depth of character within the All Blacks. They have an indefatigable spirit and the canniness of a veteran boxer to stay in the fight.

They have Whitelock, Sam Cane, Dane Coles and Aaron Smith to bring back into the fold and more opportunities to grow and adapt with bruising set piece examinations to come when they meet Wales, Ireland and France in a few weeks.

South Africa have provided the perfect measuring stick: a true gauge for the All Blacks to assess which parts of their game are working and which are in need of major attention.

They have their answers now and while it was sobering, probably galling at times, to be cleaned out at the lineout so often and buckled at the scrum the way they were, these are issues the All Blacks can reasonably expect to fix. And fix them quickly and effectively.