“They (South Africa) got a lot of experience on the bench and that showed in the second half. They put them in early, they put us under a bit of pressure, but I felt the changes we made, the whole team lifted.”
Many New Zealand players were impressed, but loose forward Shannon Frisell was formidable and scored a stormy try in the first half when he ran over defender Willie Le Roux.
“Shannon answered a lot of the critics and he should be really proud of that match tonight, he was amazing,” said Foster.
The All Blacks travel to Australia for their final Rugby Championship match on July 29, before they host the Wallabies in their second Bledisloe Cup competition a week later.
“We have a bit of a break, then the Blades and the Rugby Championship (we still win),” said Foster. “I like the situation in the last three or four minutes when we went to try and get the bonus point.
“We hurt a try against us as well, but it shows how much that means to us. We said at the beginning we really wanted to clinch this tournament and we stuck to that.”
Reuters