New Zealand reclaimed the Rugby Championship title as they dominated the second half on their way to a comfortable 41-13 victory over South Africa in Christchurch.
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The runaway competition leaders again banked a bonus point, their fourth in four matches, to be in an nearly unbeatable position in the championship with two rounds still to play.
Kieran Read and his men made it 44 straight wins on home soil with a demolition job of the Springboks, with the New Zealanders running in six tries to the Boks’ one.
The white-hot world champions will make player depth a priority for the remainder of the Rugby Championship after securing the silverware on Saturday with two weekends to spare.
All Blacks coach Steve Hansen says they made their opportunities count when it mattered most.
“Jerome is pretty sore”, Hansen said.
“It’s really nice the set piece is going well and we’re also playing a brand of rugby that we can be proud of”.
New Zealand’s transition “has been very very good, unlike in our case”, he said. That’s the difference between the two teams at this point in time.
New Zealand’s six tries were scored by six different players – Israel Dagg, Julian Savea, Ben Smith, Ardie Savea, Sam Whitelock and TJ Perenara – while Beauden Barrett kicked a penalty and four conversions.
Springboks winger Bryan Habana scored his 66th test try, three short of the world record of Japan’s Daisuke Ohata, while flyhalf Elton Jantjies added a conversion and two penalties for the visitors.
It sparked two near-identical tries to wingers Dagg and Savea, the latter notching his first points in seven Tests against the Springboks.
Springboks will play Wallabies at 3.05am on the 2nd of October while the All Blacks play Argentina at 10.10am.
Jantjies landed the conversion to give South Africa a 7-3 lead and was then guilty of opening the way for a storming All Blacks reply.
And after kick-off we let New Zealand in and those are the soft moments, the basic mistakes that cost us.
Between Smith and Ardie Savea’s tries, Janties landed a second penalty but the effort was starting to tell on the Springboks and the All Blacks rammed home their advantage with tries to Whitelock and Perenara in the final quarter.
“We haven’t played South Africa yet, but they got beaten by Australia and they are woeful”.
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Jantjies pulled three points back to reduce the deficit to 22-13, but that was the last time South Africa managed to score any points as New Zealand switched to a higher gear.
