Beauden Barrett dejected as the All Blacks crash to a record loss. Photo: Marty Melville/Actionpress
Former All Black Jeff Wilson says Saturday's record-defeat against the Springboks reminded him of the 1999 Rugby World Cup semi-final loss to France.
New Zealand conceded 36 second half points to South Africa in Wellington, falling to their heaviest defeat in history, a 43-10 loss in Wellington.
Wilson said the All Blacks had no answer for the Boks, and compared it to the loss to Les Bleus almost 26 years ago.
France scored 33 second half points to beat New Zealand 43-31 and end their World Cup aspirations.
Wilson - a try scorer on that day - said the All Blacks couldn't keep up with the resurgent South Africans.
"We just had no response, none whatsoever and our inexperience and some of our frustrations and inconsistencies that have happened over the months, they came to fruition once again and we literally had no answer," he told First Up.
"I've played probably in two games in my career. I don't like talking about them, but one was the '99 semi-final against France.
"I've been down that spiral and everything you seem to try just doesn't work. But I felt in that game, though, we fought to the very, very end. I think there's some questions from a lot of people.
"Did we fight as hard as we possibly could? Only the players themselves will know that.
"The other one was a game I played for Otago against Auckland at a time and sometimes you just can't, if you don't have the experience, you don't have the ability to get out of it."
Saturday's defeat came just a week after the All Blacks solidified Eden Park as a fortress with a gutsy 24-17 win over the Springboks.
Wilson said there will be a lot of questions asked over what went wrong in such a short span of time.
All Blacks coach Scott Robertson. Photo: Kerry Marshall / www.photosport.nz
"I'm also not looking at this one in isolation," he said. "If you look at the adjustments and the changes and the selections between the two weeks and clearly the Springboks made a huge number of adjustments and shifts, and they came in with a vastly different game plan.
"And there was no doubt there was a lot of weight of expectation on the All Blacks the previous week, and I imagine they've spent a lot of energy in Auckland preparing for that game and preparing for that moment to make sure they defended that record ... sometimes you wonder whether that catches up on you and we looked like a team that was spent in the second half."
Wilson suggested some of the mental slips could be attributed to a lack of experience against a team with notable depth.
Former All Black turned rugby commentator Jeff Wilson. Photo: Photosport
"The fact that we had a lot of guys who had played under 10 test matches for the All Blacks and through the course of two weeks, you wonder whether that caught up on them," he said.
"This is a Springbok team we shouldn't forget that is deep, which is vastly experienced as back-to-back World Cup champions. And we all were wondering what direction the All Blacks go on the back of last week, we just couldn't have anticipated it was going to be such a huge step backwards."
Wilson said he thought at worst, the All Blacks would lose a close test.
"This proved at the moment that they've still got something about them, which is a character there and around being world champions that we just haven't discovered as of yet," he said.
Wilson said the loss of livewire halfback Noah Hotham so early into the fixture wasn't ideal, but replacement Finlay Christie was coming off an "admirable" performance just a week ago.
He said the All Blacks' best back-three was still up for debate, and the set-piece will need to improve ahead of the Bledisloe Cup tests against Australia.
"Doesn't Caleb Clarke come back into the conversation? Should he have maybe got an opportunity in this game? There'll be a lot of questions around whether they got the selection rights going into this test match," he said.
"For me, in terms of areas, though, look, your set piece is critical and there are not many teams that could have done to the All Blacks what the Springboks did in Wellington.
"There are not many teams around the world that could have done that and I'm not sure Australia is going to have that same type of ability to do that to the All Blacks.
"But what they will now is look at it and go, 'well, that's not a weapon we would fear, and we shouldn't fear' and I think the forward pack as a whole collectively will look at the set piece and go, 'it's too inconsistent and we are vulnerable at putting ourselves under pressure that we right now with all of our inexperiences and inconsistencies, we can't afford to let happen.'"
Another former All Blacks winger, Sir John Kirwan, isn't ready to throw in the towel yet, and said he saw plenty of positives in the first-half.
He said consistency under pressure was needed as New Zealand look to retain the Bledisloe Cup, and even reclaim the Rugby Championship.
"I'm not worried about it; I still think we've got a competition to win (and) I don't think we should doubt the guys," he told Morning Report.
"I think we should, you know, all talk about it and make sure that they feel the pressure which I'm sure they will but I'm looking for amazing response because we've still got to keep the impact record straight."
Sir John expected a tough two tests against Australia, who sit top of the Rugby Championship table after four rounds.
Under Kiwi Joe Schmidt's guidance, the Wallabies have already beaten the Springboks - in South Africa - and Argentina this year.
"They've got some confidence and they're a well-balanced side that are very well disciplined, so you know it's going to be a really tough outing," he said.
"We all need to be on our best to beat them, so it is an incredible chance for them to get the Bledisloe back.
In our favour though, we've just come off a loss, we very rarely lose two in a row and we're playing at Eden Park, so I'm still going to back our boys."
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
