South Africa 43-28 New Zealand: Boks complete series victory in Baltimore – BBC Sport
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South Africa complete a 3-1 series win over New Zealand with Baltimore victory
Image source:
Getty Images
Image caption:
Siya Kolisi has captained South Africa to two Rugby World Cup victories and a British and Irish Lions series win
By
Mike Henson
BBC Sport rugby union news reporter
Published
8 minutes ago
Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry – Fourth Test
South Africa (17) 43
Tries:
- de Allende (2), van den Berg, PS du Toit, Arendse, Hanekom*
Cons:
- Feinberg-Mngomezulu (2), van den Berg, Libbok (2) *
Pens:
- Feinberg-Mngomezulu
New Zealand (14) 28
Tries:
- Taylor, Jordan, Blackadder, B Barrett *
Cons:
- McKenzie (4)
South Africa completed a 3-1 series win over New Zealand as the world champions’ consistency, power and cohesion once again proved too much in the fourth Test in Baltimore.
After victory in the series opener in Johannesburg last month, the All Blacks jumped to the top of the world rankings and threatened to shake up rugby’s world order. However, South Africa clawed their way back to triumph – just as their director of rugby Rassie Erasmus had predicted.
While New Zealand were spirited and skilful in pursuit of a win to square the series, the Springboks’ go-forward up front and the depth of their bench kept the All Blacks at bay.
The match played out in front of a near-capacity crowd of 68,173 at the M&T Bank Stadium, the largest-ever crowd to watch a rugby match in the USA.
A successful stateside excursion completes a series that has been compelling viewing and stress-tested both sides’ aspirations of lifting the Rugby World Cup next year – the two nations have won the past five editions of the tournament.
It was New Zealand who started fastest in Maryland on Saturday.
Eight minutes in, their breathtakingly quick tiki-taka catch-pass, with the backline holding their depth, outflanked South Africa’s blitz defence to set up the first try of the match for hooker Codie Taylor.
However, the Springboks’ brute strength in the close quarters meant they could collect points without needing to resort to such high-risk passages of play.
With their forward pack on top in the scrum and winning collisions, Damian de Allende burrowed over from short range, before scrum-half Morne van den Berg flashed a dummy and darted past Sam Darry for a similar score.
Those tries opened up a 17-7 lead for the Springboks. With Eben Etzebeth crunching returning New Zealand fly-half Richie Mo’unga in the tackle and Jasper Wiese stampeding around in the loose, the Boks seemed poised to stretch away and out of sight.
Fly-half Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, who had pushed a long-range penalty to the right of the uprights early on, missed a drop-goal shot. An overcooked attempt to find the corner also cost his team.
New Zealand’s combination of hard toil and sparkling hands then bought them a way back into the game just before half-time. Will Jordan, his nation’s all-time leading try-scorer, streaked off his wing on a superb line to dunk down over the line at the end of 32 draining phases.
Four points down at the break, Dave Rennie’s side had hopes of taking home half of a specially-designed series trophy, which, held together by magic tape, had been presented to them ahead of the match.
