It is often quite funny how the different writers see the performance of players in a game… and often one wonders whether those people watched the same game. Well, here are my player ratings… see if we watched the same game.

15 Zane Kirchner: 7/10
Zane had his best Test yet and was probably the best Bok on the park today. Solid under the high balls and carrying the ball up well and strong.

14 Jean de Villiers: 4/10
Worst Bokke performance I’ve seen from Jean. He was found wanting on defence and tried to intercept at least 3 times with the Blacks getting past him on each intercept occasion. The Northern Hemisphere has not done Jean well.

13 Jaque Fourie: 6/10
Solid as always but not a great performance, still one of the better Bokke on the park today though.

12 Wynand Olivier: 5/10
Wynand was solid on defence but never showed much on attack, mostly due to the fact that the Bokke were outplayed most of the game.

11 Bryan Habana: 6/10
Bryan did nothing wrong but got few opportunities, he made some valuable tackles.

10 Morné Steyn: 6/10
Morné kicked well to posts and like the other Bokke backs the quality of ball he had to work with did not help. Coule of bumbles but he’s still the best flyhalf option.

9 Ricky Januarie: 5/10
Giving Ricky a 5 is probably a bit optimistic and we really felt Fourie du Preez’ absence today, the tactical mastery, generalship and putting the backline on the front foot is just missing without Fourie.

8 Pierre Spies: 5/10
Pierre, like the other loosies were mastered today, both on hard running, tackling and ground ball work.

7 Francois Louw: 4/10
Francois, we expected much more from you, you were invisible today. He lost the ground ball battle and will want to forget today.

6 Schalk Burger: 6/10
Schalla was busy and we saw him work hard but he did not achieve much against this hard-runiing All Black team.

5 Victor Matfield: 5/10
For once the All Blacks managed to neutralise his lineout prowess, in fact he lost some ball, partly his own making and some poor lineout throwing from John Smit. He did valuable work on defence though, some solid tackles from big Vic.

4 Bakkies Botha: 2/10
Bakkies only gets his 2 measly points because he carried the ball up strong, but damnit Bakkies, you have become an absolute liability with the head butts and cards you so justly deserve. If I was a coach or selector you would be sent back to your Union and told in no uncertain terms that you need to spend at least a year working on controlling yourself. You’ll receive a citing for sure and prepare yourself for at least a 3 month ban… at least! Worst Bok on the park, by a mile.

3 Jannie du Plessis: 4/10
Jannie, unfortunately you formed part of a front row which was bossed today.

2 John Smit: 4/10
Were it not that you sometimes carried the ball up strong on occasion, you would have gotten a 3. Lineout throwing was poor, missed tackles and also formed part of a front row which was bossed in the scums.

1 Gurthro Steenkamp: 5.5/10
Old Guttie put in some crunching tackles and was the best player in the Bokke front row. His side held OK.

16 Chiliboy Ralepelle: On too short to rate fairly

17 BJ Botha: 4/10
The scrums did not improve with him on and he lost some balls in tackle or on the ground.

18 Andries Bekker: 4/10
Not good enough Andries, you were lax in defence and we did not see too much from you.

19 Danie Rossouw: 5/10
Danie came on as flank replacement and did not have much effect in a cause which was already lost at the stage he came on. He’ll be our No 4 lock for the next game, to replace Bakkies Botha…. a better position for him is lock.

20 Ruan Pienaar: On for only 3 minutes, too short to rate fairly

21 Butch James: 3/10
He was on for less than 10 minutes but still managed to irk the referee with getting involved unnecessarily in off the ball scuffles. Time to retire this man permanently.

22 Gio Aplon: On for only a few minutes, too short to rate fairly