Skipper Sam Cane hailed the character of the All Blacks after New Zealand ended a horror run of results with a hard-fought win over the Springboks on Saturday.
Going into the Rugby Championship clash at Ellis Park on the back of five defeats in their past six Test matches, the Kiwis delivered a vastly improved performance to lift the Freedom Cup by punishing the world champions.
“Proud is an understatement. Through adversity, it really challenges your character and this group’s got plenty of character,” Cane said of New Zealand’s 35-23 win in a post-match interview.
“It has never been a question of how much we care or how much we want it, we just needed to get a few parts of our game right.
“It was a massive challenge coming here, one of the toughest places in the world to play and the group stepped up massively, so hugely proud.
“A massive thank you to everyone who has been supporting us, particularly through the last month which has been pretty challenging, it means a lot.”
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The All Blacks were expected to struggle at altitude, particularly in the set pieces and in the aerial battle, but the visitors held their game together for a four-tries-to-two win.
Cane said: “We were a lot better at the breakdown tonight and we dealt with the box kicks and contestables a lot better. Our set piece was good and we defended the maul really well, so lots of little parts of our game [we got right] which is what Test footy is all about … getting little parts of your game right time and time again so you can build some pressure. So, massively stoked.”
Man-of-the-Match Rieko Ioane added: “The last few weeks we’ve had as a team have been really difficult; it’s hard when you’re trying to put things together and it’s not turning up. Today, the boys stuck at it and we got it done. It just confirms our team’s belief in each other.
“There’s a few doubters back home but there’s always going to be, but we know what we have in this team. We know how good we can be.”
