Israel Dagg has revealed that it was through his defiance of Sir Graham Henry that we got one of the great All Blacks tries against the Springboks.
In an interview with Stephen Donald on the Aftermarch podcast, Dagg revealed that Henry had brought him on at full-back and the instructions were to push the legendary full-back Mils Muliaina to the wing.
Dagg revealed that he felt bad about pushing his teammate out of position and therefore instead went onto the wing himself.
Context of the game
The game came in the 2010 Tri-Nations, a crucial point in the World Cup cycle before the 2011 tournament that the All Blacks would go on to win under Henry.
The Springboks were the reigning World Cup Champions and had won the Tri-Nations in 2009, winning all three tests against the All Blacks,
The All Blacks had won the opener against the Springboks, and Dagg hadn’t been involved, but found himself on the bench for the second game in Wellington.
The squad at this stage had a veteran backline, filled with talent, but a backline that would be struggling into 2011 and definitely very few would remain beyond that.
Dagg came on just after 60 minutes for Rene Ranger, who had been playing on the wing.
Hansen had given the instructions for Dagg to go into fullback and push Muliana onto the wing, but as he recalled with Donald, he felt bad moving his senior teammate out of position and went onto the wing himself.
Just a few minutes later, Dagg got the ball on the wing and was able to fool the South African line with a show and go, and the famous image of three Springbok defenders left in the wake of Dagg is famous heading into the Greatest Rivalry tour.
