RUCK N ROLL
GAVIN RICH: Boks deserve a spring in their step after epic clashes
The All Blacks and Springboks ended the Rugby Championship season nicely squared off; each one had experience of winning a game they really should have lost, and vice versa. While losing like they did was heart-breaking for the Boks, who conspired against themselves in the last 10 minutes with soft moments on the field and some questionable substitutions from the coaching box, nothing that happened in the frantic final minutes should be allowed to obscure the progress that has been made in relation to their old foe. There was a Beauden Barrett freeze-frame moment at Loftus that summed up just how much the landscape has changed. It came in the second half when Barrett beat Bok wing Aphiwe Dyantyi to a ball that had been kicked behind the try line. As Barrett won the race and touched down, it felt like it was a picture we had seen several times when the Kiwis thumped the Boks in 2016 and in 2017. Only on those occasions it was Barrett scoring a try. This time he was saving a try, and ...
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