South Africa finished this series on 95.09 rating points. That is the highest score any team has recorded in the 23-year history of the world rankings — higher than the Springboks were when they won the World Cup in 2007, in 2019, or in 2023. New Zealand are second. Ireland are third, seven points back.

But here is the thing nobody expected: across four Tests the All Blacks scored more tries than South Africa, 17 to 14, and three of the four games were live inside the last twenty minutes.

43-28 in Baltimore, in front of 68,173 people — a record crowd for a rugby international in the United States. Ten tries in a series decider. Andrew Mehrtens — 70 Tests and 967 points in the black jersey, and a man who played in a World Cup final against the Springboks — joins George Gregan and John Smit to work out what we just watched.

We also dig into the pattern nobody is talking about: South Africa scored one try in the first Test, three in the second, four in the third and six in the fourth. They got measurably better every single week against the same opponent.

And yes — we go properly into the try that turned the match and is still being argued about.