New Zealand tighten grip on The Rugby Championship title

New Zealand have a third successive crown in The Rugby Championship in their sights after beating South Africa 14-10 yesterday in a top-of-the-table clash.

Kieran Read, centre, and the New Zealand's All Blacks fought a physical match against South Africa's Springboks at Westpac Stadium in Wellington. Anthony Phelps / Reuters

New Zealand have a third successive crown in The Rugby Championship in their sights after beating South Africa 14-10 on Saturday in a top-of-the-table clash.

In a dramatic closing 10 minutes, the All Blacks produced a heroic defensive effort when penned in their own 22 to hold out rampaging Springboks pressing for a match-winning try. They now lead the table by six points with two games to play – trips to Argentina and South Africa.

“It was desperate times and that reveals the character of the team,” All Blacks captain Richie McCaw said. “We just had to keep tackling and a mistake came thank goodness.”

All Blacks coach Steve Hansen likened the clash to arm-wrestling that could have gone either way.

“The arm-wrestle was won in the last hundredth of a second of the game because they could easily have scored right at the very end and won it,” he said.

Although it was a bruising encounter, as expected of the fierce rivals, it was not champagne rugby and far from the nine-try spectacular when they last clashed in Johannesburg last year.

This time, both sides could only manage one try each and were guilty of multiple errors in the heated atmosphere. It was a match which South Africa desperately wanted to win to cap celebrations for captain Jean de Villiers 100th Test

“The disappointment overshadows the achievement,” de Villiers said, who said the outcome came down to one lineout at the end with Kieran Read preventing Victor Matfield from winning the ball.

The bruising match took its toll on both sides with New Zealand inside centre Ma’a Nonu (broken arm) and Springboks scrum-half Ruan Pienaar (knee) set to miss the rest of the Rugby Championship.

Meanwhile, Australia were unable to hide a mild disappointment at being taken down to the wire by Argentina as they secured their second win of the Championship.

The Pumas stormed back from 29-13 down in the last 20 minutes and could have stolen a draw had they scored a try from a five-metre scrum in the last few seconds.

The Wallabies were saved by the referee penalising Argentina for an early put-in but the home side were very much aware that the match, which ended 32-25, should never have been in the balance given the number of try-scoring chances they carved out.

“We created a lot of opportunities and we were a bit disappointed we couldn’t capitalise and put them away earlier but the resilience of the side to hold them at the end was pleasing,” flyhalf Bernard Foley told Fox TV.

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