VIDEO: The 'fine margins' All Blacks must fix for Cape Town

Improved discipline and winning the territorial battle.

Those are the key aspects New Zealand must work on this week – as they look to bounce back from a heartbreaking 27-31 loss to South Africa in Johannesburg at the weekend.

The All Blacks get a second shot at the world’s No.1 team when the two sides go head-to-head in Cape Town this coming Saturday.

The win at Ellis Park this past weekend cemented the Boks at the top of the Rugby Championship standings with 14 points after three rounds in the annual Southern Hemisphere championship.

The All Blacks are in second place with six points, followed by Argentina (five points) and Australia (four).

Captain Scott Barrett said the Boks won the territory battle and that allowed them to put the visitors under pressure – especially with the vociferant Ellis Park spectators behind them.

“Our [lack of] discipline fed them [Boks] even more so,” he said of a 14-5 penalty count against the All Blacks.

The turning point came in the 67th minute, when replacement prop Ofa Tu’ungafasi was yellow-carded for cynically collapsing a maul near the All Black line.

Replacements Kwagga Smith and Grant Williams scored late tries as South Africa came back from a 10-point (17-27) deficit, to record a dramatic victory.

The result put the Boks in a prime position in the tournament.

“It is frustrating to have that lead and let them in like that,” he told @rugby365com.

Coach Scott Robertson also bemoaned his team’s moments of ill-discipline.

“I am so proud of the effort and the way we defended,” he told a post-match media briefing, adding: “It was just a little bit of ill-discipline by the lads that cost us.

“But those are the fine margins in Test footy.

“Some of the penalties were down to a bit of interpretation, but those small moments lead to a bit of momentum and the game changes.

“We still had opportunities to win the game, we have just got to execute better.

“Ellis Park is a hell of an arena – what an atmosphere tonight and the crowd really gets involved.

“But that is where we thrive, we love those moments.”

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The coach declined to discuss a contentious try scored by Bok hooker Bongi Mbonambi in the 17th minute – when the hooker appeared to lose control as he drove over the line.

“I saw what you saw,” Robertson said, adding: “I can’t say anything.

“It is a dangerous area if you start talking about referees.”

He said they gave themselves an opportunity to win probably the biggest Test in the hardest place to win a Test.

“There was so much good and then there were a couple of moments that didn’t quite go our way, a couple of swing moments and that’s footy, that’s Test footy, that’s the big stage.

“There was just some individual moments and just around that maul and just a little bit of offside stuff,” he said, after being asked about the penalty count.

“They did put pressure in different areas and you’ve just got to be cleaner, you’ve just got to trust your system and yourself and minimise all those opportunities for them to be in your 22.

“Look, there’s some pretty upset boys and upset changing room because we knew some key moments that we didn’t own in that past 15 but we had such a brilliant 65 [minutes] in their efforts and our ball play and everything.

“Our job now is to make sure that we deal with the things that we can get better [at] but also acknowledge what we did well.”

@king365ed
@rugby365com

* Picture credit: Johan Orton photography