JOHANNESBURG: Scrum-half Grant Williams scored a 75th-minute try to give South Africa a dramatic 31-27 comeback victory over New Zealand in a Rugby Championship thriller in Johannesburg on Saturday. The All Blacks had looked likelier winners for much of the match, but conceded two tries in the final 11 minutes after replacement prop Ofa Tu’ungafasi was yellow carded. Less prone to errors, New Zealand scored four tries and built a 27-17 lead on 53 minutes against rivals struggling to click in a rematch of the 2023 Rugby World Cup final won by South Africa.
But the spirit of the Springboks told in a tense finish as they scored 14 unanswered points, with fly-half Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu converting tries by flanker Kwagga Smith and Williams. Hooker Bongi Mbonambi was the other Springboks try scorer and Feinberg-Mngomezulu contributed 16 points from two conversions and four penalties. Winger Caleb Clarke twice, hooker Codie Taylor and centre Jordie Barrett were the New Zealand try scorers and fly-half Damian McKenzie slotted two conversions and a penalty. Victory lifted South Africa to 14 points after three matches in the annual southern hemisphere championship. New Zealand have six and Argentina four while Australia are pointless.
New Zealand were awarded a penalty within 25 seconds of the kick-off, which they put into touch close to the South Africa try-line, and this set the scene for relentless All Blacks pressure. Brilliant Springbok defending against numerous multi-phase assaults kept the visitors at bay until the seventh minute when Taylor broke the deadlock with a try. Down to 14 men after full-back Aphelele Fassi had been sin-binned for fouling flanker Ethan Blackadder, South Africa could not stop a New Zealand drive off a line-out and Taylor scored.
Struggling
McKenzie, who had succeeded with 12 of 13 kicks at goal in the first two rounds of the Championship, converted and the All Blacks were seven points ahead. South Africa were battling to settle in front of a capacity 62,000 crowd and Feinberg-Mngomezu lu sent the kick-off after the try directly into touch, conceding a scrum.
The Springboks desperately needed a boost and it came, controversially, after 17 minutes with another try from a hooker, this time Mbonambi. South Africa won a line-out and Mbonambi used sheer strength to surge forward and dot down, but replays suggested that he may have knocked the ball on in the process of scoring. Only two points separated the titans and South Africa edged ahead on the half hour mark when Feinberg-Mngomezulu slotted a 50-metre penalty for an 8-7 lead.
But it took New Zealand just three minutes to regain the advantage as flanker Ben-Jason Dixon was dispossessed in midfield and slick handling sent Clarke over. McKenzie failed to convert, his kick drifting wide of the far post. At the other end of the field, Feinberg-Mngomezulu kicked a close-range penalty. A first half as fiercely contested as anticipated finished with the All Blacks leading 12-11 - the scoreline by which they lost the 2023 World Cup final in Paris. An intercept try by Barrett and a second from Clarke, one of which McKenzie converted, took the All Blacks 10 points clear. Then came the fightback from the Springboks, who will face their greatest rivals again next Saturday in Cape Town.— AFP