Rugby-Springboks must handle All Blacks pressure at the breakdown, Reinach says

South Africa must deal with New Zealand's pressure at ​the breakdown and get quicker ball if ​they are to win Saturday’s second ‌test in ​Cape Town, scrumhalf Cobus Reinach said. The All Blacks claimed a 33-16 victory over the Springboks in the opener of the four-match series in Johannesburg ‌on Saturday and moved top of the World Rugby rankings.

World champions South Africa had numerous entries into the New Zealand 22 and created chances to score, but a mixture of errors under pressure and some excellent ‌defence from the visitors kept them to one try at Ellis Park. The Springboks also had two players ‌sent to the sin-bin in the final 11 minutes, Reinach being one of them, and played out most of the remainder of the game with 13 men.

"They put us under pressure and made us do things that led to my yellow card, ⁠but it’s ​now up to us ⁠to work on that and see how we can defend certain things better or make a better plans," Reinach told reporters. "The review ⁠after a loss is never good, but it’s learnings, and as long as we take the lessons and grow ​as a team, we will be in a good place."

Both Reinach and the man he replaced ⁠at scrumhalf, Grant Williams, had a difficult evening and were put under pressure from the visitors. "I don’t think they targeted us as ⁠individuals ​as number nines, they went after our breakdowns quite hard and tried to slow down the ball with throwing their legs and other things," said Reinach.

"We felt the pressure and we knew we ⁠had to get the ball out somehow, and we have to work out ways around it. When we ⁠train, we try to ⁠emulate that, and try to figure out ways in which we can improve." The third match is back in Johannesburg on September 5 before the series wraps up ‌a week later ‌in Baltimore in the United States.