All Blacks coach Scott Robertson has played a straight bat to questions over a pivotal try awarded to Springboks hooker Bongi Mbonambi, as the world champions defeated their archrivals 31-27 at Johannesburg.
New Zealand led by 10 points midway through the second half of the Rugby Championship encounter, but could not hold off a storming finish from South Africa, despite scoring four tries to the home side's three.
One of those three touchdowns carried a high degree of doubt over its validity, after Mbonambi appeared to lose the ball in Jordie Barrett's attempted tackle, before grounding it short of the tryline. Irish referee Andrew Brace awarded the points without review, but ironically ruled out the conversion, after Springboks first-five Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu dallied too long over the kick.
Hooker Bongi Mbonambi seemed to lose the ball before forcing it. (Source: Supplied)
Quizzed about the incident, Robertson was not prepared to offer his opinion on the incident described as "maybe a knockon".
"Maybe?" he teased. "Pardon... just checking if it was a try or not.
"Look, I saw what you saw... we saw what you saw. We can't say any more, it's a dangerous area if you start talking about referees and stuff."
Mbonambi's try put the Boks on the board and a penalty to Feinberg-Mngomezulu soon after gave them their first lead of the game.
The All Blacks led 12-11 at halftime and ran up their double-figure margin after the break, before tries to Kwagga Smith and Grant Williams brought the hosts home to victory.
"The Springboks won the territory battle and when they get the ball at that end of the field, the crowd certainly get in behind them," reflected captain Scott Barrett. "Our discipline probably fed them even more so.
"It is frustrating to have that lead at 60-odd minutes and then let them in like that."
Robertson vaguely lamented the punishment handed to his team at set-piece and breakdown. Feinberg-Mngomezulu kicked four penalties that kept the Boks in the contest, while the All Blacks lost prop Ofa Tu'ungafasi near the end, after he was yellow-carded at a ruck.
"It came down to interpretation, and we weren't clean enough and Andrew made the call," said Robertson.
The new coach was somewhat blindsided by a damning reflection of his bench. Over three Rugby Championship outings — two against Argentina and now one against South Africa — the All Blacks have been outscored 34-0 over the final 20 minutes.
They managed just one converted try in the latter stages against Fiji, after twice bringing Beauden Barrett off the bench to dominate England in the dying minutes.
"That's the first time I've heard that stat, so good work," Robertson told the reporter. "I'll have a look at it."
That statistic may be just the incentive for him to unleash winger Will Jordan in the No.15 jersey, where the tryscoring prodigy served him so well for the Crusaders during their Super Rugby championship run.
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