All Blacks

Competing with an unrelenting defensive display, South Africa beat the All Blacks 26-10 in a Lipovitan D Rugby Championship Test in Mbombela that will be ...

In the first quarter the All Blacks only had 22 per cent of possession which improved to 44 per cent by the break while South Africa enjoyed 58-42 territory advantage. However, they worked their substitutions well to keep the pack fresh in the second half. South Africa's first try came from using their scrum to effect. While conceding a try in the eighth minute, it wasn't a poor start to rank with those the All Blacks suffered in the second and third Tests against Ireland. Rather it was a case of being unable to prise the ball away from the Boks pack. Over the ball he was consistently the man who put the All Blacks on the back foot, and when backed with determination at the tackle by the rest of the side, there was no way through until the 76th minute. Hamstrung by a lack of possession, and unable to have any impact in achieving their flow, the All Blacks were unable to find any answers in a Test which for the 53 minutes saw the breakdown become the domain of Springbok hooker Malcolm Marx.

South Africa have piled more pressure on the slumping All Blacks and their besieged coach Ian Foster, grinding...

"It was a grind," Springboks captain Siya Kolisi said. "For us, I actually thought it was a step up in performance from the last series. We will have to go and look at that." The margin of victory for the Springboks was their biggest over the All Blacks since 1928 and up there with New Zealand's heaviest defeats. The consolation barely lasted a minute as Frizell dropped a pass from Sam Cane as the All Blacks tried to attack from in front of their tryline, allowing le Roux to kick ahead and flop on the ball over the line. Arendse scored the first try in the eighth minute after a smart offload by centre Lukhanyo Am and the Springboks set about subduing the All Blacks with their scrummaging, merciless defence and persistent tactical kicking, which kept New Zealand pinned in their own half for long periods.

South Africa has defeated New Zealand 26-10 on Sunday morning AEST in the Rugby Championship opener in Mbombela, adding to the woes of the embattled All ...

Clearly a team at odds with the coach, just nowhere on attack. Bravo Boks! A score that flatters the All Blacks, who were miserable out there. We did well to absorb that but it took a lot out of us. We did all the things we wanted to do. They have a couple of players who can break the game open at any time.” We made the tackles, we know how dangerous they can be.

The breakdown was an area that plagued the All Blacks at home against Ireland at times and has been a key work-on for Ian Foster's team.

“We got to take the lessons and start believing in ourselves. We knew it was going to be tough, they are at home, full crowd, come out with a lot of passion. “Playing a quality team, we knew it wasn’t just going to happen. So really proud of that effort, but what went wrong was our ability to build pressure with the ball. Get down in their half and then turn the ball over or ill discipline, or just simple knock-ons.” A forward pass from Akira Ioane spoiled the potential opportunity around the halfway mark.