Rugby Championship Review - South Africa 27 - 38 New Zealand

So many times, the quality or drama doesn’t live up to the occasion.  Think of that scrappy 2011 World Cup final or the Kiwi’s marmalisation of the Lions in 2005.  But 2013 has provided some vintage matches in the biggest arenas – from the Premiership and Heineken Cup Finals to the epic Lions series, we’ve been treated to some pant-wettingly dramatic games, oozing with pace, power and skill.  But perhaps we’ve just seen the best of the lot.  The biggest stage and the two biggest sides in the world produced one of the best games of international rugby seen for years – and all done against the backdrop of a Rugby Championship up for grabs; if South Africa could achieve the impossible and score 4 tries against the All Blacks, whilst preventing them from taking a bonus point, then the title was theirs.  Expectations were set for an explosive encounter.

The word ‘explosive’ didn’t do the opening to this game justice though.  After a frantic five minutes, with Julian Savea and Willie Le Roux both looking to make yards with the ball in hand, the Springboks set up shop in the All Black 22 and earned 3 points via the boot of Morne Steyn through the power of their pack.  The hosts had looked the most dangerous in the first couple of plays but, as is so often the case, it was the clinical All Blacks who struck the first significant blow.  Off slow ball, the magnificent Kieran Read outstripped Willem Alberts before flicking a delightful ball to try-machine Ben Smith, who stepped inside the cover and palmed off Steyn for a superb finish.  Aaron Cruden knocked over the conversion, but the visitors couldn’t remain content for long.

Number 8 Duane Vermeulan, clearly riled up by his opposite number’s moment of genius for Smith’s try, put on his own moment of magic, pacing through a gap in the All Black defence before hitting Bryan Habana with a cut out pass, allowing the winger to scoot under the posts, showing great awareness to avoid Conrad Smith on the way.  Steyn’s conversion followed, and two minutes later the flyer was at it again – this time collecting a brilliant offload between tackles from Francois Louw before chipping over Ben Smith and regathering for a phenomenal try. 

With the score at 15 – 7 to the Springboks, against any normal team you’d back them to move out of sight.  But this All Blacks side are not a normal team.  Firstly, the Springbok fans were dismayed to see Habana limp off with a hamstring injury after leaping for a high ball, before the All Blacks pack got rumbling close to the hosts’ line, and Liam Messam powered over from close range.  They then landed the ultimate sucker punch on the cusp of half time as Messam strolled in for his second following good hands from Cruden, Savea and Andrew Hore after the Springboks had tried to run the ball from deep.  It left the score at 15 – 21 to the visitors at half time after a pulsating 40 minutes of rugby.

From the restart, the hosts took the game to the World Champions, forcing them to defend their line and commit cynical infringements, resulting in a yellow card for Messam.  Fourie Du Preez took the penalty quickly and the confusion allowed Le Roux to wriggle his way over the line from 6 metres out, with Steyn hitting the conversion.  An unbelievable period of play then nearly resulted in one of the tries of the tournament, with Eben Etzebeth galloping for 40 metres before JJ Engelbrecht stood up Savea and fed Le Roux, who was caught – and knocked out – by a sensational double tackle from the backtracking Savea and the covering Reid. 

The Kiwis, though, fought back and realised that they were within one score of reclaiming the Championship – and they thought they had it when Ma’a Nonu barrelled over from the fringes of the ruck, only to be prevented from grounding the ball by a superb piece of defensive work from Siya Kolisi, who had replaced Willem Alberts and was having some impact on the game.  Substitute Beauden Barrett knocked over a penalty though to give his side a two point lead with 25 minutes remaining.

But back came the Boks, led with conviction – as usual – by Jean De Villiers, and the powerful centre smashed through Barrett and Nonu to crash over for his side’s fourth try and the all-important bonus point.  Steyn missed the crucial conversion but, if his side could prevent the All Blacks from scoring another try and nicked another 3 pointer themselves, then the Championship was there for South Africa.  The impossible now seemed possible.

Unfortunately for the hosts, the inevitable happened, and the All Blacks wrapped things up – and it was ironic that Barrett should atone for his earlier mistake by scoring a fantastic solo effort.  The young fly half took the ball statically, but managed to weave between De Villiers, Engelbrecht and Zane Kirchner to touch down for the Championship-sealing try.  It was briefly followed by a substitution-related drama where the All Blacks claimed they had committed an impressive typing error by misspelling Dane Coles as ‘Keven Mealamu’, but even that wasn’t enough detract from the on-pitch spectacle.

The chance for a tournament win may have been lost, but this game was still nowhere near over, and passions spilled over into tempers when Ben Franks was shown yellow for a swinging arm in a ruck.  The hosts, though, were out on their feet.  To play a game at the speed and physicality they had – and at altitude – was bordering on superhuman.  They had nothing left and couldn’t take advantage of the extra man – the All Blacks though, still had that little bit extra, and Julian Savea showed real class to set up Kieran Read – who had put on an incredible display – to run in for a deserved final score.

There was still time for Barrett to pull off a brilliant try-saver on Le Roux as the game closed out at 27 – 38, and if there was a time when that cheesey adage of “Rugby is the real winner” was appropriate, it was now.

All Black fans, of course, will rightfully scoff at that.  New Zealand are the “real” winners.  Again.  And it’s hard to see that changing anytime soon.