Ian Foster and Aaron Smith question Springboks' high ball tactics

Ian Foster and Aaron Smith have questioned the tactics used by the Springboks in the air after their 10-26 defeat to South Africa.

Beauden Barrett landed dangerously late in the game after Kurt-Lee Arendse got his chase and contest completely wrong. Arendse was shown a red card because of his actions.

Overall it was a tough evening for the All Blacks under the high ball with multiple drop balls with the Springbok scoring their first try from a mistake under the high ball.

Smith dubbed the Springboks' tactics as ‘borderline’ but admitted that his side need to do better in the aerial contests.

“Our ability to diffuse their bombs is something that we need to fix, but their tactics there are a little bit borderline,” Smith said.

“To see Beauden Barrett do a full flip is pretty scary. That is a part of the game that needs to be looked at a little bit. We have to do better to protect our jumpers.

“Because as we saw, we stopped them around the 30-metre line and they just put a bomb up. But that works for them.”

Ian Foster expressed similar thoughts saying: “It is a big part of their game,” Foster said told Sky Sport.

“We’re going to have a look at them chucking bodies in the air, we were pretty frustrated with that.

“The one in the first half we weren’t very happy with, and certainly the last one, was very dangerous.

“But that’s part of the game we’ve got to sort out. If they’re going to just chuck bodies up, and just throw people up in the air, it’s a very hard thing to deal with. That’s the game. We missed one and they scored, and that got them the early momentum.”