The All Blacks have pulled off an extraordinary 33-16 victory against the Springboks in Johannesburg with a burst of 21 unanswered points which left an undisciplined home side broken and bereft.
The Boks finished the match at Ellis Park this morning with 13 players after loose forward Marco van Staden and halfback Cobus Reinach were sinbinned for cynical play as the All Blacks turned up the pressure to intolerable levels.
It means the All Blacks have begun the Greatest Rivalry tour with an incredibly important victory. They have now won the last three of their four Tests at South Africa’s high citadel of rugby and sent a message that this team has resilience and depth of character along with innovation and ambition.
The plain statistics will show that the visitors scored five tries to one, with wing Will Jordan scoring two of them (and winning a late turnover penalty which displayed his toughness and bravery), and Josh Moorby, Fabian Holland and Luke Jacobson scoring the others.
The Boks had won seven of their previous 10 Tests against the All Blacks, who also had to cope with the late withdrawal of flanker Anton Segner due to a worrying ankle problem.
But the numbers won’t give an insight into how deep the All Blacks had to dig to survive the initial physical onslaught from the Boks or indeed how they turned around a scrum which was on the brink of being destroyed.
For the latter the front row replacements George Bower, Asafo Aumua and Fletcher Newell deserve a huge amount of credit because somehow they helped turn what was becoming a dangerous liability for Dave Rennie’s men into a strength.
With prop Ethan de Groot struggling with a knee problem, the All Blacks gave up half a dozen scrum penalties but it all changed once Bower replaced him late in the first half and then when Aumua and Newell joined the Crusader after the break the visitors dominated the set piece.
That was illustrated perfectly after 56 minutes when the All Blacks were 5m from their posts and defending a scrum and a 19-16 lead with the Boks in the ascendency and they turned the tables with a penalty of their own.
“I think we probably owe them a beer,” halfback Cam Roigard told Sky Sport afterwards. “Unbelievable - we got a lot of energy from that.”
Rennie said: “The scrum came good – it was a big part of our success tonight.”
The Boks, with No.8 Jasper Wiese running like a locomotive and fullback Damian Willemse controlling the air, had the better of the start with a penalty for Cheslin Kolbe a reasonable reward.
But back came the All Blacks with Jordan scoring in the right corner and while the Boks were winning the race at the breakdown there was a hint that they could be stretched if the visitors got it right.
Back came the Boks, though, with Andre Esterhuizen powering through Josh Moorby for an important try which sent the massive crowd into raptures but they were soon silenced by Moorby’s reply; a try following an offload by loose forward Tupou Vaa’i roaming in the wide channels.
It was Moorby’s first Test try and a hugely important intervention – as was Jordie Barrett’s strip on hooker Malcolm Marx as the Boks seemed certain to score from a lineout drive.
It allowed the All Blacks, under a huge amount of pressure on their line, to escape, and they did well to concede only another penalty goal to Kolbe and get to halftime relatively unscathed – apart from losing lock Josh Lord and de Groot to head injuries after a nasty clash.
Another Kolbe penalty after the break put the Boks further ahead 16-12 but, despite the home side’s momentum, that was as good as it got for them.
A Holland charge down of Grant Williams’ clearance from the re-start helped New Zealand to a 19-12 lead and once they won that scrum penalty in the shadow of the posts the whole game changed.
“Just so proud,” Rennie told Sky. “We were under the pump for a large chunk of that game, especially up front.”
A breakout by Jordan and fullback Damian McKenzie almost led to a try for Roigard but the halfback just missed the ball over the line. Alas for the Boks, the All Blacks scored from the resulting scrum, Ardie Savea off the back and Jacobson over the line.
It gave the visitors a 10-point lead and it was here that referee Matthew Carley showed a huge amount of common sense in over-ruling TV match official Mike Adamson for a ridiculous foul play call on Jacobson.
Carley would also over-rule Adamson on a Savea tackle against Wiese, the TMO apparently determined to find head contact when there clearly was not.
So, yes, everything was going the All Blacks’ way at this point and the Boks, facing scoreboard pressure did not have the game to cope with it.
Jordan won a remarkable penalty turnover by twice staying in the fight, midfielder Quinn Tupaea kicked a 50-22 and then the Boks suffered their ill-discipline meltdown – two players sent to the sinbin for clearly illegal and cynical acts (offside and tackling halfback Roigard, and an intentional knock-on) on their tryline.
Jordan’s second try came from a wide Savea pass from a 5m scrum and the All Blacks’ dominance was complete. It was the wing’s 53rd try in 58 Tests.
Skipper Savea said: "We’ll take this win, but we know it’s not over. We’ll keep going."
All Blacks 33 (Will Jordan 2, Josh Moorby, Fabian Holland, Luke Jacobson tries; Ruben Love 4 cons)
South Africa 16 (Andre Esterhuizen try; Cheslin Kolbe 3 pens, con)
Halftime: South Africa 13-12
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