All Blacks boss Dave Rennie pinpoints 'costly' error as turning point in Springboks defeat

The world champions clinched a 29-24 victory in front of a capacity crowd at the FNB Stadium, which gives them a 2-1 lead in the four-Test Rugby's Greatest Rivalry series.

Both sides scored four tries apiece, with Kurt-Lee Arendse, Jesse Kriel and Malcolm Marx crossing the whitewash for the Springboks, who were also awarded a penalty try. The Boks' other points came via a penalty and two conversions from Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu.

Meanwhile, Ardie Savea led the way for the All Blacks with a brace of tries while Jordan and Samisoni Taukei'aho also dotted down. Their other points came courtesy of a conversion apiece from Ruben Love and Damian McKenzie.

The match was evenly poised for long periods, and the teams changed sides at half-time with the score deadlocked at 12-12. The All Blacks were fastest out of the blocks after the restart, and Jordan gave them a 17-12 lead when he crossed for his try in the 56th minute.

Two minutes later, the Boks struck via Kriel's five-pointer, converted by Feinberg-Mngomezulu, and Rennie believes that was the time the world champions took control of the match.

"I think the Springboks got a fair bit of momentum mid-second half and we were able to play a high-tempo first half after we saw a lot of their big men struggling and were keen to try and make that play in the second half," he told reporters after the match.

"But we made a few errors which slows the game down to a scrum and then often a penalty in field position for them. So, I had a period where just after we'd had the lead, they dominated us at set-piece and won all the scraps and had all the momentum for that period and obviously got reasonably well in front.

"So, it's frustrating because there's a lot of effort out there and maybe we weren't quite clinical enough first half and then couldn't wrestle momentum back when it mattered second half."

Despite their second successive defeat to their arch-rivals, Rennie feels his team are not far off from matching the Boks and then highlighted that moment from Jordan which ultimately led to his side's undoing.

This came after the All Blacks winger booted the ball upfield from inside his half before it rolled over the dead-ball line. That resulted in an attacking scrum from which the Boks kicked for touch from the subsequent penalty, launching a lineout drive from which Marx scored his try.

"I don't reckon there's much in it. I didn't think there was much in the first Test, which we won convincingly in the end, according to the scoreboard," he said.

"So, it's key moments, like a big moment today was Will Jordan kicking it dead. It's just unlucky, it was a good option. But you come back for a scrum, which is a penalty to them all, where they drive however many metres to score.

"They made hay when they had momentum tonight. We probably didn't do that enough. I think discipline hurt us at times.

"They're the world champions for a reason, aren't they? Very good up front and they played a bit of footy tonight. We probably made a few errors that allowed them to play. I thought they were a lot stronger in that area than they had been in the first two Tests."

Rennie admitted that countering the Boks' driving maul from lineouts was a difficult task, especially the one from which Marx scored what proved to be the match-winning try.

"The key thing is you've got to get in front of it," he explained.

"The one they scored off, we competed and then we scrambled to try and get in front of it. They kept rolling through us. It was really the only one that troubled us today.

"We've got to be able to stay in front of it. If we're going up, we still need to stay in front of it. Yeah, it's disappointing."