Disjointed All Blacks on Highveld safari: 5 areas Boks needs to sort out

New Zealand is currently experiencing an unprecedented meltdown when it comes to their beloved men's national rugby team.

With the large wave of success they've experienced in the professional era, despite their inability to win the World Cup until 2011, this kind of dip wasn't countenanced.

It's true the All Blacks prepare for an odd Test defeat against bitter rivals South Africa and Australia every so often.

However, they weren't ready for the kind of bruising series defeat they experienced at the hands of the Irish.

They've retreated into what is called in South African parlance a 'laager' to a point where All Black coach Ian Foster was shielded from a press conference by communications manager Jo Malcolm.

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The All Blacks are experiencing the coordinated chaos the Boks generally go through once every World Cup cycle.

It's the seismic fallout from their underperformance that's shocked the rugby-loving nation to its core.

However, the Boks will have learned not to underestimate the All Blacks, and with that, they'll need to sharpen up on these five areas:

Off-the-ball niggle

In the first Test between New Zealand and Ireland, All Black utility forward Scott Barrett got away with this shoulder charge:

Penalised for no arms clear out, referee said he thought it to the body pic.twitter.com/78KpKFByJE

This, from a South African player, would elicit howls of foul play and the cementing of the perception that Bok players are thugs.

That said, Barrett was carded and suspended in 2019 for a similar offence against Australia, but that was in Perth.

These are the small things that can become big things in the narrow margin affairs that are Springbok/All Black Test.

The Boks can easily get caught up in a niggle,