Skipper told it like it was

There were some extremely encouraging signs for South African rugby to come out of Christchurch on Saturday, but they did not necessarily have that much to do with the Springbok onfield performance.

Make no mistake, the Boks were magnificent in defence. This was certainly a showing that inspired confidence in their ability to keep the opposition out. Remember the All Black team they kept out for just one minute short of 80 at the Jade Stadium was a similar one to the combination that scored more than 50 points against them at Loftus last July.

The opening Tri-Nations test of the year for the Boks also confirmed what we had seen in the buildup to the home tests against Ireland and Wales - namely that this is a squad with a great team spirit and plenty of character. It has to be a very together unit that plays as bravely and displays the tenacity the Boks did in that second half when the All Blacks were all over them. Clearly Jake White is one Springbok coach the team members do want to play for, and they also want to play for each other.

When the Boks had chances to score, they also took them. This was not a game where you could say that scoring chances were wasted. A colleague of mine remarked at the end of the first half that the Boks only really looked good when they were scoring tries, and when it comes to their attacking play, he was not far wrong.

Which is reason we should not get too carried away and start proclaiming that this team, on the basis of a two point defeat, are suddenly world beaters. For the match statistics made for pretty sobering reading afterwards, and they made you realise just how heavily the Boks relied on their second half defensive effort to stay in the game.

Those who are lauding the Boks for their effort should not forget that beforehand many were predicting a positive performance from the South Africans on the basis that they possessed a pack that could shade the All Blacks. This certainly did not happen in any area outside of the set-scrums, and even the scrum received a bit of a dent to the ego when late in the game the Kiwis turned them over at a crucial stage.

The All Blacks won more than twice as many lineouts as the Boks, they poached some balls early in the game, and they had many of us wondering just how White could possibly imagine that he could do without Victor Matfield. This is not a criticism of Albert van den Berg, because he definitely didn't let his side down, but Matfield is just a class above most other exponents of the art of pressurising the opposition on their ball, and this was something the Boks needed more of.

The amount of possession enjoyed by the All Blacks from the rucks and maul, particularly in the second half, was another indicator of just how outplayed the Boks were in most facets of the game. The All Blacks enjoyed five times as much possession as the South Africans, and while this says great things about the defensive effort, White will know better than anyone that big "in your face" defensive efforts cannot be repeated week after week.

It is just physiologically impossible for a team to raise its game indefinitely, and clearly the Boks are going to need more than just a resolute defence in the matches to come, particularly now that the performance bar has been raised to the level where their fans are now almost expecting a couple of victories out of this Tri-Nations campaign.

So now that you have read all this negativity, you may be wondering why in the opening paragraph I spoke of encouraging signs? Well, apart from the defence and those first half tries, there were several, and they all came after the final whistle.

The first came from the reaction of the New Zealanders and the South Africans on the field of play. The All Blacks were delighted to win, and afterwards they celebrated like they had scored a truly momentous victory.

And then when Tana Umaga stepped up to take the mike for the television interviews, there was none of the patronising rubbish we have heard from New Zealand skippers in recent seasons. Umaga did say the Boks were back, but only because the words were put in his mouth by interviewer Ian Smith.

Instead he seemed more concerned with praising his own players for the way they dug deep to win. There was no harping on about the All Blacks being under par or not playing to the standard expected of them. This was not a day when the Kiwis were concerned that they had won so narrowly. All that interested them was that they had won the match, and that speaks volumes for the new respect that the Boks enjoy from their long-time opponents.

The All Black players, and the All Black leadership, don't need to tell the world that the Boks are a force again, they take it as a given, as indeed was the message they put across in the buildup week. For them beating the South Africans was an achievement, and that is a positive for the men in green-and-gold.

But by far the most positive statement from a South African viewpoint came in the interview with Springbok captain John Smit. The skipper was not just disappointed with the way a winning opportunity had been squandered at the death, he was disappointed with his team's entire performance.

"We are very disappointed as we can play much better than we did tonight and we did not make any improvement on last week," said Smit.

For me, that spoke volumes for where this Bok team want to go, and what they expect from each other. Former Springbok stalwart Mark Andrews said in an interview I conducted with him last week that he had been disappointed towards the end of his career that on many occasions after matches in New Zealand his teammates appeared satisfied afterwards with narrow defeats. It was almost as if damage limitation was enough and a loss didn't matter.

Clearly the result, and whether the Boks are on the winning or losing side, matters a lot to John Smit and his teammates. If they felt as badly about their performance as Smit said they did, they must have expected a lot more from the match than most of their most recent predecessors.

So for me the fact Smit and the Boks saw the game the same way as I did, which means they made crucial errors which led them to underperform, is a huge step forward for the South African national team. If they think they can improve on Christchurch, they probably will. And then they really will be back!