The Boks who scored the perfect 10s in Wellington

Damian Willemse and Jasper Wiese were scored the perfect 10s, 10/10 for their performances in the Boks record-breaking 43-10 Castle Rugby Championship win against the All Blacks in Wellington, New Zealand, writes Mark Keohane.

The NZ Herald, the premier media publication in New Zealand, has previously only ever scored two Springboks as perfect 10s in Test matches between the Boks and All Blacks.

Malcolm Marx has been afforded the compliment and Pieter-Steph du Toit, in the 2023 World Cup final, when he made 28 tackles, rearranged every bone in Jordie Barrett’s body and inspired the Boks from minute one to minute 81.

In Wellington it was Willemse, starting his first Test at inside centre for the Boks, and Wiese, back from a six week ban, and starting at No 8.

Cheslin Kolbe, Siya Kolisi and Duane Vermeulen have come close in recent years, scoring eights and nines from 10 when it comes to the New Zealand media, but on Saturday the golden buzzer went the way of Player of the Match Willemse and Wiese, who made 14 tackles, eight carries and was a demon in the way he tortured and terrorised the All Blacks.

Wiese has been missed.

Willemse, who started the 2023 RWC final against the All Blacks at fullback, has had several injury setbacks in the past 18 months, but in Wellington he revelled with the additional responsibility at No 12, as did Wiese in a remarkable performance, given he has not played since seeing red 20 minutes into South Africa’s second Test against Italy in July.

To illustrate the potency of the Boks, in the eyes of the NZ Herald, every substitute received eight from 10, bar one. And that one was the viking RG Snyman, who was rated nine from 10.

Marnus van der Merwe – 8

Jan-Hendrik Wessels – 8

Wilco Louw – 8

R.G. Snyman – 9

Kwagga Smith – 8

Grant Williams – 8

Manie Libbok – 8

Andre Esterhuizen – 8

NZ Herald rates each Boks player out of 10

NZ Herald rugby columnist Gregor Paul wrote: ‘The All Blacks have talked all year about wanting to play at pace, but goodness knows why because they couldn’t remotely compete with the Boks when the tourists rammed the stick into fifth and played with a compelling mix of power, pace, precision and ambition.

The second half descended into exhibition rugby from South Africa and something nightmarish for the All Blacks.

The sight of the giant R.G. Snyman ghosting through a passive defensive line was plain embarrassing.

When the Boks grabbed a sixth try in the last minute to push the score past 40, it was plain humiliating.’

GREGOR PAUL’S NZ HERALD COLUMN 

HOW KEO.CO.ZA CALLED THE BOKS’ WIN 24 HOURS BEFORE IT HAPPENED

Did you know the Springboks have inflicted four of the eight biggest ever points differential wins against the All Blacks and the top two, 33 points in Wellington and 28 points at Twickenham in 2023, pre the Rugby World Cup. They have also beaten the All Blacks twice in the only two finals the two giants have played against each other, in South Africa in 1995 and in France in 2023.