Kieran Read: Strong All Blacks start defused 'one trick pony' Boks

Former All Blacks captain Kieran Read has heaped praise on his former team for the manner in which they held off the Springboks at Ellis Park last weekend.

Read believes the All Blacks successfully managed to defuse the Springbok 'Bomb Squad' by forcing the hosts to use their bench early.

This, he believes, contributed to the Boks tiring out late in the game.

South Africa had overturned a 15-0 deficit to lead 23-21 inside the final 10 minutes, before two late New Zealand tries sealed a 35-23 win.

"The way the Springboks selected their team, I think the fact that we made them go to their bench early really helped us down that back end," Read said on SENZ Radio's the The Run Home Show.

The 2011 and 2015 World Cup winner added: "They want (Malcolm) Marx to come on and only play 40 minutes and (Steven) Kitshoff, a few of their other big players, even (Duane) Vermeulen could only go 30 minutes.

"It was a testament to our start, which hadn't been at our best all year. Guys put them under pressure and I think it paid dividends in the back end."

Read described the Springboks' game as "brutal" but bit of a "one trick pony".

"Even on the weekend where we played pretty well, there was periods of play where they were able to get a bit of a roll on," he said.

"They could score points on us and put us under a lot of pressure. They are, in some cases you could say a one-trick pony in the way they play. It's just a brutal game plan from them.

"It's so brilliant, you know? (Makazole) Mapimpi chasing high balls, it's not 50-50 when he's chasing it. He's catching everything.

"And they've got their maul. So you've got to give kudos to our forward pack for scrumming well and stopping the maul basically over the whole series. Stop them winning penalties