New Zealand heap more misery on woeful South Africa
New Zealand continued their dominance of the Tri-Nations with a 31-17 win over South Africa in Wellington on Saturday.
It was a performance full of everything you would expect from an All Blacks side, exciting with the ball in hand and destructive at the break-down. The home side were in fact, trailing 13-7 at half-time following a brief rally from the Springboks, but their class shone through in the second half as they turned their territorial dominance into points.
All Blacks captain Richie McCaw was at his bulldozing best as usual, and he has now broken the record of becoming the man with most wins for his country. McCaw surpasses former skipper Sean Fitzpatrick's record of 74 to take the honour, incredibly, McCaw's 75th win comes in just 85 Tests, giving the 29-year-old a phenomenal winning rate of over 88% in Test rugby.
This result was New Zealand’s 11th consecutive Test-match win and the skipper hailed his side’s defensive effort. "We had to defend pretty hard there and to turn over the ball a couple of times and get to the other end of the field and score, that's what you got to do in these games," said McCaw immediately after the game.
"It is always easy to put one performance out there, but to back it up is great. The Boks certainly came to play and it was pretty physical. However, we stuck to what we wanted to do and coming away with the win makes us very happy."
McCaw was the star of the forwards’ performances, but it was a young man eight years his junior that provided the lovers of running rugby with their fix. Second-half substitute Israel Dagg scored a fantastic solo try late on to bring the crowd to their feet. Dagg took a ball from Jimmy Cowan, broke tackles of Pierre Spies and Schalk Burger, side-stepped full-back Zane Kirchner with a silky dummy and crossed over for an extraordinary try.
Despite the mesmerising score, Dagg, who has struggled to make an impact at Test level up until now, expressed after the game that the five seconds of magic were a bit of a blur.
"It's pretty blank to be honest,” Dagg said after the game.
“I got through and saw the white line, I was pretty shocked as you can see from the video replay. Hopefully there's plenty more to come. I've just got to keep grounded and keep my feet on the ground and just go from here."
The All Blacks have been favoured by this year's Tri Nations schedule, which hands them a week off now before two clashes against Australia and then another two weeks off before their away match in South Africa.
For their out of form opponents, however, they remain without a point in the competition so far, and they will need a big improvement against Australia next week if they are serious about restoring some national pride.
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