Draw is probably a fair result
More or less, to be honest. ABs were very dominant in the second half (71% to 29% in terms of territory possession, I believe) and certainly bombed a try when they had that scrum in the last 6 or 7 minutes, 5 m out from Bokk's try line. Not to mention that Barrett left more points on the park than Pollard.
Just some random thoughts:
- both teams looked to be somehow inferior to their 2015 RC/RWC versions;
- Retallick's injury is a huge scare for ABs and I really, really hope he will be available for the RWC;
- Mo'unga at 10 and Barrett at 15 experiment went down pretty well (in my view better than Barrett at 10 and DMac at 15), but both Ben Smith and especially Rieko Ioane were too quiet on the wings;
- Frizzell played well at 6, but one of Hansen's problems post 2015 is that no new Kaino could be found;
- Too bad McKenzie is no longer a bench option, could have really set the last 20 minutes on fire;
- Dan Coles added a spark to the ABs attack and I wonder who would be better to start at 2;
- Jack Goodhue's second-half charges were dangerous and I felt like he partnered well with SBW. I'd still use the Crusaders midfield combo though;
- Aaron Smith's habit of wasting a couple of seconds before cycling the ball, in order to show to the referee whatever kind of supposed infringement of the other side, became increasingly and alarmingly annoying;
- Kolbe was outstanding, I don't know if Habana had that kind of pace when he was in his prime.