All Blacks Come From Behind

This was the first real test for Graham Henry and his side after comfortable victories against a gutsy Canada and a lacklustre French C team. The Springboks were the only team to have troubled the All Blacks in the past couple of years.

The All Blacks clearly showed their intentions for the world cup as they played a fast-paced game that eventually took toll to a tiring springbok side. Throughout the game the All Blacks looked dominant but credit has got to be given to the South African defence as the All Blacks were tryless until the 68th minute.
The Springboks opened the scoring with a straight-forward kick by veteran Percy Montgomery. Just minutes later the Springbok halfback Ruan Pienaar slotted a monster penalty kick from over fifty metres to give the Boks an early 6-0 advantage. Then the tide turned as the All Blacks started to get their hands on the ball and play an expansive game, running the Springboks around. The All Blacks were eventually awarded some penalties but the ever-reliant Dan Carter looked like he had left his kicking boots at home, missing 2 of his four first half kicks, all ones that he would normally slot with ease. This tied the game up at 6-6 but the All Blacks looking the better side going into half-time.

Then the Springboks pulled off a try completely against the run of play, some rare back play resulting in a five metre line-out to the Boks, this gave them a golden opportunity as they had had the wood on the All Blacks 6th and 7th choice locking combination They pouced with a good maul towards the line and then Stormers flanker Schalk Burger dived over to give the Springboks an 11-6 lead at half-time.

The second half started well for the All blacks as second five-eight Aaron Mauger kicked a drop goal to get the Kiwi’s within two. The All Blacks continued to dominate play, to no avail when Aaron Mauger threw an intercept try to Durban hero Butch James and he ran under the sticks to give the South Africans a 18-9 lead.

The All Blacks continued to dominate and were ferociously attacking the Springbok line when within a few minutes of coming on the field loose-forward Pedrie Wannenburg was sin-binned for hands in the ruck. Dan Carter then kicked a simple penalty goal to get the All Blacks within a converted try. That was not for long as Percy Montgomery kicked a penalty to restore a nine point lead.

With fifteen minutes to go on the clock it looked as if it wasn’t going to be for the New Zealander’s. They were suddenly sparked by a fifty metre kick return by man of the match Rodney So’oailo who then offloaded to fellow Hurricane Jerry Collins, which eventually resulted in All Black captain Richie McCaw Charging over for his tenth test try. The try was converted to cut the Springbok lead to two.

The depth in the All Black subs was paying off as Piri Weepu, Luke McAlister and most importantly Leon McDonald all played well off the bench. McDonald set up a try for speedster Joe Rokocoko after returning a kick and drawing Francois Steyn.

From then on The South Africans never threatened the All Blacks line and the All Blacks wrapped up an intriguing match with the final score at 26-21.

This victory will provide a key psychological advantage to The All Blacks in world cup year.