They offered words of encouragement.
Advertisement
Just like when they trailed up until the 57th minute in their opening pool match against Argentina – who they could yet meet again in next week’s final – the All Blacks needed to flex their muscles when it mattered. “You look back on a game like today, and giving yourself a chance to make a World Cup final, and it’s pretty satisfying”.
“I had a lot of faith in our composure”.
The coach said South Africa “had a flawless first half, with the right gameplan”.
He converted both and also slotted a second-half penalty to move ahead of Grant Fox as his country’s leading World Cup scorer.
“At the start of the tournament, one of the questions we asked was that if Australia are to advance here, we have to be the best in the world at something”, Eales told Fox Sports after Australia’s 29-15 semi-final win over Argentina.
“We knew South Africa would give us a different game – and it turned out that way”. We could have been sitting on the ground there knowing four years’ hard work was over. “There’s a couple I didn’t agree with, so I’ll have to talk to Joel (Jutge, World Rugby head of referees) about the interpretation”.
There were no such problems for Pollard, whose beautifully struck kicks bisected the posts four times after the All Blacks were continually penalised.
But Hansen, speaking at a press conference in Weybridge on Sunday, said: “There is nothing in it, so there’s nothing to talk about”.
Defending champions New Zealand battled a 14-6 penalty count before beating South Africa 20-18 to book their place in the title decider next weekend.
New Zealand edged past South Africa to reach the 2015 Rugby World Cup final.
But they had learnt the lessons from the first half.
That led to a drop-goal from Carter within the first five minutes and in the 52nd minute, they got their second try of the game when Ma’aNonu found Barrett in the left hand corner to run in for the touchdown and quickly they had reclaimed the lead.
“It’s painful tonight but one day when I am older it will be easy to reflect (on the achievement)”.
South African coach Heyneke Meyer said the Carter drop goal was the turning point.
A double whammy it was for South Africa as not only did their defence finally give way, but they also lost winger Bryan Habana who was sin-binned for knocking the ball away intentionally.
Rugby-mad New Zealand faces a nervous wait to see whether McCaw will be cited for his contact on Francois Louw after he felled the Springboks flanker early in the match.
New Zealand captian Richie McCaw believes his team are making the most of the opportunities being presented to them.
The Springboks spent nearly all of the closing exchanges penned in their own half.
Advertisement
The raw emotion of Carter – normally a picture of cool – was clear to see in numerous All Blacks faces, after they trailed the Boks 12-7 at halftime but controlled the match superbly in wet conditions in the second half and squeezed home for the win.
