The most useful thing the Bulls did on Saturday night may have been to lose in a way that told the Springboks something.
Johan Ackermann's side were beaten 50-19 by the All Blacks at Loftus Versfeld, the third and final tour match before Rugby's Greatest Rivalry series opens at Ellis Park on Saturday. Asked afterwards whether he had any advice for Rassie Erasmus, the Bulls coach did not hedge.
"To be fair, obviously the Springboks are match-fit, and there's quality players, they've played a long time together, and they've got some of the best heads in the world putting a plan together," Ackermann said. "So, I think the Springboks will be well-prepared, and time will tell."
Then came the actual tip.
"The All Blacks maybe had the scoreboard luxury tonight to try a few things from deep in their own half that I don't think they'll get away with against the Springboks. They may find themselves in a bit of trouble."
Under Dave Rennie, New Zealand have moved away from the territorial kicking game of the Scott Robertson era and back towards ball in hand from anywhere on the field. Against a Bulls side without the bulk of its Springboks, it produced 12 line breaks to one. Ackermann's point is that the same ambition against a full-strength Bok defensive line is a different proposition entirely.
He also thinks the counter runs both ways.
"I think the Springboks will see that there are opportunities if you keep the ball in hand against the All Blacks, and I'm sure that they will look at the game and work on that."
Ackermann's own regret was patience. "I think, again, they were well-planned, the All Blacks, but I feel that if we were a little bit more patient with the ball in hand tonight, we could have finished a few opportunities, and I think hopefully the Boks will take that."
Rennie, for his part, is not pretending the tour has been a Test-level examination. New Zealand beat the Stormers 38-21, the Sharks 54-0 and the Bulls 50-19, and in every case the opposition was missing most of its internationals.
"What we know is the intensity levels, the quality that we'll come up against next week, is three, four, fivefold, but we've played reasonably well on tour and we know we need to up the ante," he said.
He was, though, encouraged by where the work has landed — particularly at scrum time, an area that creaked badly in Cape Town at the start of the tour.
"50 points against a very good Bulls side is a positive, we played a team that was prepared to play and really took it to us," Rennie said. "I thought our set-piece was really strong, especially the scrum. I thought from a discipline point of view was a lot better. We created so many opportunities with 11 line breaks to one so we probably left a few points out there which is a little frustrating but I can't fault the effort."
He credited forwards coach Jason Ryan for the turnaround: "I think it's the result of a lot of hard work, a couple of little technical things around the Stormers that we're doing better now so a lot of good work from Jason Ryan and his group."
Rennie also flagged the altitude, which the All Blacks got a first taste of in Pretoria a week before running out in Johannesburg. "It's good for us, we've now got a game at altitude, guys got an appreciation for that. I thought we worked really hard in those circumstances and we'll be better for it. There will be a number of boys that will be better for the opportunity to run around at altitude."
Codie Taylor, captaining in the first half on his return from injury before handing over to Patrick Tuipulotu, was more interested in how the side responded when it was under pressure than in the scoreline.
"This week we talked around this tour's going to be tough, there's going to be a lot of tough moments in it so one of the main focuses is when we have those tough times, we're really connecting as a group and walking towards those moments," Taylor said. "I feel like there were a few times where the Bulls had us under pressure or down in our five we had a scrum, we reacted well to that and got out of our half with a penalty. There was some great scrambling from the back three which got us out of trouble."
The hooker was careful not to overclaim. "I'm sure they're going to be asking a lot more questions come next week. From where we started with the Stormers and built our way through these club games, I feel we've made some great strides as a forward pack. By no means are we the finished product."
Craig Ray, writing in Daily Maverick, read the Loftus performance as a deliberate signal — a side reminding South Africa it can win ugly as well as pretty, with a pack he called immense and a back division that looked ominous even with the inexperienced Josh Jacomb at flyhalf.
Six straight wins under Rennie, and none of them against a Springbok. That changes at Ellis Park on Saturday.
