SOUTH Africa have beaten New Zealand for the first time in Dunedin winning 30-28 in an incredibly gutsy performance.
The Springboks finished the game with 14 players after captain Victor Matfield was shown a yellow card for a high tackle.
But they deserved to win, scoring two tries to one and defending brilliantly all game. A piece of individual brilliance fro Springboks half-back Ricky Januarie proved the matchwinner.
The Springboks now head to Perth to take on Australia.
Latest action (all times EST)
PROGRESS SCORE: 28-30 (South Africa)
SPRINGBOKS WIN
81st: Carter goes for drop goal 40 out, its charged down by South Africa, Steyn regathers marches up the field carrying two All Blacks and eventually boots it out. Boks win. What a game, with 14 men on the field. That is the Springboks first win ever at Dunedin and they deserved it, two tries to one.
80th: Hooter has gone, they are lining Carter up for a drop goal as the forwards rumble up the field.
79th: All Blacks lineout 35 out with less than a min left. Last chance
76th: Carter drop kick misses its mark. Free kick to All Balcks after restart though, they are running themselves into the ground. Nonu makes a huge break, has overlap but gets tackled. Free kick Boks, five metres out. Two massive hits from Burger halted that attack. The man is a warrior.
Fulto is feeling it as well: Shove over on the couch. Excellent coverage. Very nervous now. Always hard yakka against the Boks. Sitting at breakfast table in London with cup of coffee (no pub full of SA's in easy distance), wearing Mighty All Blacks shirt.
Hitting the refresh key every minute.Need another try!
75th: TRY. Incredible South African try. Little half Januarie spots a little hole between two slowing forwards, runs 20, chips the full-back and regathers with great hands and dives over the line to tie it up. Steyn to convert. That was awesome. He converts, massive kick for the young man. Boks in the lead, four mins to go. 28-30
73rd: YELLOW CARD. Huge moment, Matfield gets ten for a high shot on Lauaki. He looks bitterly angry but ref had spoken to both captains five minutes before about it. Carter is 40 out, knocks it over. 28-23. That might just knock the Boks sideways a touch, he has been a mountain in the lineout.
71st: Game has that feel that just one mistake will hand victory to the opposition. Who will hold their nerve. Matfield steels a lineout throw, can jump that man.
Toby arrives from Cairo: In Cairo right now, cant watch the game because no satellite and my TV is from the 50s... Go All blacks! thanks for the updates bro, life saver!
68th: Boks knock it on from the restart, big chance for the All Blacks now, 20m out from the Boks line. Pressure is building, phase after phase. This is such a better second half. big Tony Woodcock finds himself with the ball on the wing a la Phil Kearns but is tackled over the line less than a metre before the try line.
67th: PENALTY. James knocks one over for the Boks to narrow it down again. No one is flinching, the crowd is tense. 25-23
65th: DROP GOAL. So cool under pressure. The All Blacks broke down the left wing, two phases later Carter pops it offer to regain the buffer. Sensible rugby. They were not going to get repelled again without getting points for their incursion. It is tough out there. The World Champions defence has been excellent. 25-20
Sam also struggling: Love your commentary. I am in Bahrain and having to work. Would rather had been at the Rugby Club watching the bokkie boys weep in their beer especially that the game is taking place in my home city of Dunedin. Sounds like a tough game.
Bloody oath it is, Sam.
PC in a dilemma: Cheers m8 – Stuck in my office watching the screen when I should be watching the game – great coverage – go the All Blacks
62nd: Watson on for van Niekerk, Montgomery off as well. The game has certainly lifted in intensity. Maybe has something to do with the lack of stoppages this half. Steyn roosts a massive bomb, pressures the All Blacks who drop it three metres out. Boks end up with a free kick, go left, Habana gets the ball and gets absolutely cleaned up by McDonald. Touchy puts flag up and talks to ref. high tackle. PENALTY. James to have a shot. It's over. 22-20. This is great stuff.
61st: PENALTY. Montgomery misses to the right, bad miss. They needed that just to knock the wind out of the All Blacks slightly.
Fergus wants to straighten things up: As well "The Mighty All Blacks" suggested by Hamilton could we also have some comments like "The World Champions" or "The World Cup Holders" or "World Ranked Number One". Good coverage. A neutral.
Of course Fergus. I only chucked one in for hamiltno as I thought he was the only one sitting on the couch with me.
Richard arrives: Thanks for the uodate. Our Foxtel is disconnected. We are on our way back to SA. The "Great Bokke" need to win to make it interesting....Go Bokke.
They need to pick it up now Richard, All Blacks are starting to really play.
56th: TRY. Brilliant try from The Mighty All Blacks. Sione Lauaki has just come on and scores, after a couple of carries during the movement. Nine phases, half Ellis makes a mini break at the end, off loads to Smith who breaks a tackle and somehow offloads to a rampaging Lauaki who barrels over from eight metres out. Great rugby. Carter converts. Mealamu on for Hore as well. 22-17
52nd: Van Niekerk just had a moment he will want to forget, flying up the right wing, he draws his man, looks left with no All Blacks defender outside him, sends a bullet pass ... to no one but the touch judge. Resulting lineout sees Carter kick to the corner, Wulf and Pietersen chasing but it beats both over the side inside the goal area. Very close, couple of yards in it. All Blakcs nearly get the try.
Hamilton comes to my rescue: You are not alone! We have sky, but sadly my flatmate hates Rugby, and seeing as how it's his Sky I can't watch the rugby :o( The pub is sounding darn good about now! Your live scoring is all that is keeping me sane, though if you could pepper it with more phrases like 'The Mighty All Blacks' and 'obvious skull-duggery of the South Africans' I'd appreciate it :o)
Keep up the good work! You are not alone in the cyber space ;o)
Hamilton, you legend. Thanks for staying. What sort of flat mate do you live with? Time to find a new house. Just for your attendance I promise at least one Mighty All Blacks mention.
50th: All Blacks have had a cattle prod stuck up them. They have lifted two or three cogs and are stringing phases together. The Boks are scrambling well.
47th: Boks intercept and head upfield, Montgomery takes a horrible option and boots it long with only prop Afoa chasing him. They lose the ball. Gamebreaker Francois Steyne is on for Adrian Jacobs, who looks pi**ed that he was dragged.
46th: Nine phases of ball from All Blacks, their best passage of the game. They end up with a free kick 18m out from the Boks line. Great attacking opportunity.
42nd: Sivivatu has veen taken off and flyer Leon McDonald is on. All Blacks get an early attacking chance with a scrum inside Sprinbok territory. Carter chip and chase is cleaned up by Habana who sends a long pass in his 22 to Pietersen who boots it out on the full. Looking confused he wonders why the touchy is bringing the ball all the way back to where he booted it.
C'mon people, anyone have any thoughts about the first half. Or are you all at the pub where I wish I was. Don't get me wrong, I love that while I am at work I get to watch the rugby but its not the same as screaming at the television with a schooner in tow.
The Springboks lead on the stats board as you would imagine with 57 percent of possession and eight minutes in the opposition 22 compared the the All Blacks three. There have been 11 first half penalties as well.
The Boks have had a solid scrum as well and are dominating the lineout.
HALF TIME.
40th: PENALTY. All Blacks were pressing haven taken a couple of quick taps. New Zealand then get a penalty after the buzzer for taking out Carter off the ball. nothing too major but ref is still having words. Carter is 25 out and 15 in. It's good. 15-17. HALF TIME
38th: PENALTY. Thomson in front of the kicker in general play, Montgomery gets another chance from 40 out. He pushes it left.
36th: Montgomery takes a great kick well back in his half and roosts it deep. Sivivatu gets to the ball on the full but puts a foot on the line 20m out from the All Blacks tryline, Springboks lineout. Boks applying the pressure now, finally finding their feet. James goes for drop goal from well out, under pressure as the ref had his arm raised for advantage and he knocks it over the dot. 12-17.
35th: Carter goes for a drop goal from 43 out but pushes it left. News of Ali Williams is he is dazed and has aggravated his ankle injury.
33rd: TRY. Video ref awards Pietersen the try on the sideline after the five metre scrum. Montgomery misses the conversion. That comes from good speed from van Miekerk off the back of the scrum. 12-14.
32nd: Great break by the Springboks down the right wing. Tackled over the line five metres out. Lineout, with no experience is messy, the All Blacks ball squirts back over their tryline. From ensuing scrum Boks go short, get overlap and offload to Pietersen. has gone upstairs to check for try.
30th: It's a pity the whistle keeps blowing because both teams are having a crack. Quick quote, lock combinations are ina a bit of an experience mismatch. Springboks 122, All Blacks 2.
25th: Sprinboks get a free kick from a scrum, which have been very competitive so far but the Boks half, Januarie knocks it on. Williams has finally succumbed and on comes Kevin O'Neill for his first Test and joins Anthony Boric, in his first run on Test, in the second row.
24th: PENALTY. Du Plessis ruled offside chasing a ball that came off Montgomery's head. That one was granted. That is eight penalties already, one overy three minutes. Williams still looks wobbly and is getting treatment as Carter lines it up. He pops it over effortlessly. 12-9
22nd: PENALTY. So'oialo is penalised for playing the man and not the ball in the ruck, taking out Butch James. Again looked pretty soft. Montgomery kicks pretty damn well as well. Scores tied up. 9-9
19th: PENALTY. All Blacks ruled offside in a bit of a mess around lineout time. Whistle happy at the moment. both teams looking like they want to run the ball but penalties are flowing. Montgomery kicks his second goal. 9-6. Goddard reffed last week with Argentina and Italy and blew 30 penalties then.
16th: PENALTY. Springboks pemalised for a late tackle after some great counter attacking rugby from the All Blacks. Carter is six metres in from the sideline about 35 out. He never looks like missing. I don't think there has been a better kicker that I can remember. Beter than Fox, better than Lynagh, even better than Mal Meninga's toe pokes. Can kick. 9-3
15th: Ali Williams has a huge head clash with Burger, two men with two, you would imagine, very hard heads. Williams is groggy but getting to his feet. Big Burger just wanders back to the mark. All Blacks would hate to lose him. He is playing on though
13th: PENALTY. Aussie ref Matt Goddard having a bit of a Barry. Kiwi flanker Adam Thomson is penalised for coming into the ruck on the wrong side but pity he was the tackler. He also 'allegedly' (as we must say) copped a serious facial on the bottom of the ruck. Boks knock the kick over. 6-3
12th: Ref has his arm up for a South African penalty for a head high, which also looked pretty ridiculous. Boks play advantage and end up over the touch line maybe only two metres in front of the tackle, lose the ball but ref says advantage over. bad break for the Boks for sure.
9th: PENALTY. Nonu makes a good break, is tackled and van Niekerk enters from the wrong side. 40m out Carter caresses it over. Thats 750 Test points to Carter. 6-0
7th: Great break from Boks centre Jacobs to ten metres out. Freekick to Boks, taken quickly by Burger but a Butch james grubber is snaffeld up by the Kiwis who roost it deep, no one home for South Africa. All Blacks a bit luck.
6th: PENALTY. New Zealand get a relatively soft penalty as Burger is pinged for taking Carter high as he ran to the line. Looked worse on replay but, geez pretty soft. No problems for wonderboot Carter to knock it over. 3-0
4th: The All Blacks are looking to play on quickly all the time, throwing it around well and playing at a quick tempo.
2nd min: First set piece, a Springboks lineout taken well, as always and driven on beautifully by the pack. Pivot James goes to the air but it is marked easily by Sivivatu.
New Zealand were clearly the better team last week but that is done and dusted. this will be brutal I think.
1734: Haka. I still love it no matter how many times I have seen it. Boks look relatively calm in front of it but I am sure the blood is pumping.
1732: Everyone loves an anthem. I just thank god there is no John Williamson singing Waltzing Matilda.
1729: Predictions? I reckon this will be a bit tighter. The South African pack is solid as always and with big Bakkies Botha playing his 50th Test and Matfield captaining both will be fired up. And playboy Percy Montgomery will provide a bit more calm at the back.
Full house at Dunedin though. You don't win those games against the All Blacks.
1726: Hilton fires up: Typical SA's whinging because they lost, and it wasn't the dirtiest thing anyone's seen in awhile, maybe the 4 French players beating the hell out of James Horwill comes close.
They only looked like scoring once, and they seemed to wilt under the physical approach NZ took, they looked a bit lost as to what to do, as they usually try and dominate the forwards and that did not work.
He only picked Smit up and then dropped him, didn't drive him with his shoulder, and it was after the whistle had gone! If it caused his injury, how could he play the rest of the first half?
Horwill got done over didn't he? That eye went bung before the first fist pulled away from his face. I actually saw him on Wednesday at training and it was still shining.
1710: Cav chimes in: Sorry mate but all this hype about the injury to Smit seems like bollocks to me, he injured his groin while being thrown down on his back? he looked fine playing the rest of the match until he eventually did come off. while it is a shame to lose your captain to injury as both teams now have, I think they are using Thorne as a bit of a scapegoat.
Yeah Cav, I have a mate here at work who said the tackle was fine. He was having a heated debate with a very pro-Springbok fan who was adamant it was the dirtiest thing he had seen in a while. Said it reminded him of the All Blacks taking out Brian O'Driscoll as the British Lions captain to unsettle the team in 2005. Gotta say though, I am a bit with you. These things happen in tough Test match rugby.
1700: SO what did you guys make of the banter between the Springboks and All Blacks during the week. John Smit definitely sounded peeved after Brad Thorn was given just a week for his 'unsportsmanlike conduct' the result of which saw the Springbok captain return home injured?
This is what Smit said: "Just imagine (Springboks lock) Bakkies Botha doing something similar to (All Blacks captain) Richie McCaw. World rugby would have come to a standstill.
"One almost gets the idea that anyone who is not from New Zealand does not have the same rights as someone who plays for the All Blacks.“I was suspended for six weeks after a Test match in France for running into someone with my elbow held in front of me. It was not nearly as nasty as what happened to me.”
From here.
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