Howley went to Johannesburg to check on Wales’ first opponents in next month’s Dove Men Series and saw them concede five tries in a game which they had to win with a bonus point to overtake their big rivals at the top of the table.
Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer was pleased with the way his side plundered four tries against the New Zealand defence, but unhappy to leak five in return to allow the All Blacks to end the season with a perfect record of six wins from six outings.
Flying wing Bryan Habana scored two tries to overtake Christian Cullen as the record try scorer in the Tri Nations / Rugby Championship and there was another for centre Jean de Villiers. The epic tussle between the two old foes left both coaches with plenty to smile about and it was the first time the Boks had scored four tries against New Zealand since 2004.
“We gave everything on attack, but I am disappointed in our defence. When you play the best team in the world you cannot afford poor defence,” said Meyer.
“We have conceded one try per test match this year, so it is not the structure. The guys shot out of line perhaps because they were too keen to make big hits.
“The guys came out firing and it was one of the best games I’ve ever being involved with. We did go for the four tries, but we allowed them to score some soft tries.
“Ball in play was one of the highest ever in a test match and we know now that we can score four tries against the All Blacks, something we wanted to prove to ourselves.”
The final round of games in the Rugby Championship saw Australia hit back after a poor tournament by smashing the Pumas 54-17 to leave the home side without a win and clutching the wooden spoon. Israel Folau was the star once again as he grabbed a hat-trick of tries in seven try salvo from the Wallabies.
The record victory made it a double over the Pumas for the Wallabies and put them in much better heart for their third and final Bledisloe Cup clash with the Al Blacks in Dunedin on 19 October. That will be their final outing before they head to Europe on a five Test, Grand Slam tour that culminates in a game against Wales at the Millennium Stadium on Saturday, 30 November.
