Within 10 minutes they had a clear lead after Julian Savea scored from a fine offload by hooker Dane Coles – and they went into the break 15-10 up.
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New Zealand lacked certainty with its handling in contact for some of the match and had problems in midfield where Ryan Crotty couldn’t hold passes and Malakai Fekitoa seldom threatened the defensive line.
Cruden’s groin injury has ruled him out of a 32-man squad which will be announced on Monday to play Tests away to Argentina on October 1 and South Africa in Durban a week later.
Despite thrashing Argentina 57-22 last week, the All Blacks were exposed defensively around the ruck and that is to be Savea’s focus against South Africa.
New Zealand won the Rugby Championship with two matches to spare after beating South Africa 41-13 in Christchurch.
“We were probably a bit guilty of playing too much footy and making mistakes”, Coles said.
“The Boks have got a lost of history, especially in All Blacks-Springboks games”. Waisake, we are not sure whether he would be ready for the first game or not.
The All Blacks runaway success this year has been attributed to New Zealand’s policy of always preparing understudies and therefore paving the way for a near seamless transition from a World Cup squad to a rebuilding unit.
“The All Blacks beat Argentina by about 30 points in a “close” test, and they have now crushed the hopelessly naive Springboks by a similar margin without even playing well”.
The Savea brothers looked a threat throughout, while hooker Dan Coles was sensational in the off-load, turning provider for New Zealand’s last three tries.
They need three more victories to surpass the world record which the All Blacks of 1965-69 and 2013-14 share with the 1997-98 Springboks.
Eric Watson, owner of the Warriors side in the rival rugby league code, said the All Blacks’ dominance of world rugby union was not “real sport” and the Australia-based National Rugby League was more “exciting”.
“I knew that we had some really talented people but we had also lost a lot of talent”, said Hansen. Steve, Kieran [Read] and the group will continue to strive to get better and play their best game of the season in Christchurch.
The Springboks were presented with their jerseys on Friday by 2007 World Cup winning captain John Smit, with the symbolism poignant.
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“The team – coaches and players – look at it and say, ‘how can we step it up another level?’ If Richie, Conrad [Smith] and others were there, I’m sure they would have done the same thing”.
