The All Blacks brought the Springboks crashing back to earth by claiming a decisive Rugby Championship victory on Saturday to extend their unbeaten run in Auckland.
Going into the match high on confidence after a sensational win over the Wallabies and looking to beat the All Blacks in Auckland for the first time in the professional era, the Boks suffered a 35-20 loss to their rivals at the Mount Smart Stadium.
The result sees New Zealand put themselves in the driving seat to claim a third-straight Rugby Championship title, as they will travel to Australia to face the Wallabies in the final round, while South Africa will be chasing a big win against Argentina at Ellis Park on 29 July.
The All Blacks built their win on a sensational opening 20 minutes, during which they dominated the collisions and the kicking game to claim all the momentum, forced the Boks into errors and ruthlessly took their opportunities to open up a 17-point gap.
During this period, most of the Springboks’ key players went missing, with soft moments on defence and rushed decision-making contributing to their mire. Even when the Boks fought back towards the end of the first half – and were very unfortunate to have a Cheslin Kolbe try ruled out – they could only take three points from their momentum.
Was this a try by Cheslin Kolbe? 👀
Schalk and Shimmy seem to disagree with the ref here 👇
Score: 17-0
📺 Stream #NZLvRSA live: https://t.co/bDeiretgWP pic.twitter.com/8vaS6IoTSc
— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) July 15, 2023
The Springboks wasted little time in calling the famed ‘Bomb Squad’ off the bench and it produced an improved performance in the second half, with Malcolm Marx going over from a massive maul, before Willie le Roux produced a wonderful flat pass to put Kolbe over in the corner.
However, New Zealand rallied in the final 15 minutes and Beauden Barrett set up Will Jordan with a brilliant cross-field kick to extend the home side’s lead. Richie Mo’unga then sealed the victory with an excellent flat run off a five-metre scrum, wrapping up his personal haul of 20 points.
Photo: Fiona Goodall/Getty Images