Former All Black Izzy Dagg has reacted to the New Zealand national team’s loss to South Africa on the weekend.
The All Blacks were beaten 26-10 by the Springboks in Nelspruit in their opening Rugby Championship fixture.
While Dagg acknowledges playing away in South Africa is always a tricky task, he was critical of Ian Foster’s team.
“Disbelief,” he said on SENZ Breakfast when asked of his emotions when watching the game.
“South Africa over there, it’s hard, it’s a fortress.
“But on the other side of it, we’ve won more games than them in their own country leading into that game.
“Kiwi teams have always fronted and knowing what South Africa teams are going to bring.
“We’re just lacking with ball in hand. We weren’t able to build pressure. Every time we made a break we’d make an error, just silly mistakes, we got beat at the breakdown.
“There were signs of improvement. Their rolling maul, if you look at that side it, we stopped a few of those pretty well.”
Dagg did wonder what game head coach Ian Foster had been watching when he said in the aftermath of the defeat that he “felt it was probably our most improved performance this year”.
“Listening to Fozzie’s comments, I was like, ‘Wow, ok, was he watching, or…?’,” Dagg said.
“It was frustrating and I understand everyone’s frustrations.”
Dagg described the All Blacks as a “wounded team”, pondering if they are going in the right direction under the guidance of the current coaching staff.
“Even my dad on our family message group, he just said, ‘Look boys, we just might not be as good as we think we are, that just might be it’,” he added.
“Do we have the players? Do we have the depth? Do we have the coaching?
“I genuinely think we’ve got the players, but the direction and the game understanding at the moment is lacking.
“But they are a wounded team.”
The All Blacks will lick their wounds this week before again taking on the Springboks in Johannesburg on Saturday night.