South Africa have well and truly taken over as rugby’s leading innovators and New Zealand legend Mills Muliaina says his ou span must accept it.
The Springboks beat the All Blacks 31-27 in last week’s Rugby Championship Test in Johannesburg, after fighting back from a 10-point deficit as the experienced South African replacement bench outclassed the rookie selections of their Kiwi counterparts.
The loss has fans and Muliaina’s fellow ex-All Black Jeff Wilson and co-host of TV show The Breakdown calling for the selection of experienced overseas-based players like Brodie Retallick and Aaron Smith.
But Muliaina reckons it will only serve as a quick fix and explains why All Blacks coach Scott Robertson should back his rookies: “They have got to go through this. This [current] team has to go through this.
“I said it at the beginning of the year: ‘How patient are the rugby public going to be?’
“We are rebuilding – the innovators are now South Africa we have just got to suck that up, [because] they are.”
The Springboks and All Blacks lock horns again at Cape Town Stadium this Saturday.