The All Blacks comfortably beat the Springboks in Wellington New Zealand. The Springboks played much better than last week and went ahead after 30 seconds.
Butch James who was not even in the squad last week got the nod at fly half and took the kick off. New Zealand’s star number 10 Dan Carter tried to clear but his kick was charged down scrum-half Fourie Du Preez who caught the ball and ran over to score the first try of the match in only 17 seconds.
Percy Montgomery added the conversion and the Springboks led for a lot of the first half. The All Blacks were patient and plucked away at the the Boks 7-0 lead. Just before the half time the AB’s were 12-0 up and scored an crucial Weepu try giving them a comfortable lead at half time.
The Boks did come back with a try in the second half from Breyton Paulse but it made no difference to the result in what was an aggressive test match.
Three more Carter kicks and a Richie McCaw try sealed the match. In total, Dan Carter kicked 25 points as the All Blacks claimed their 20th straight home victory.
The All Blacks now travel to Australia where they will play Australia next week while the boks must wait until the 5th of August before facing Australia again in Australia.
Final Score 35 – 17 (19-7)
New Zealand 35 (19)
Tries: Weepu, McCaw
Cons: Carter 2
Pens: Carter 7
South Africa 17 (7)
Tries: Du Preez, Paulse
Cons: Montgomery 2
Pens: Montgomery
New Zealand: MacDonald; Howlett, Muliaina, Tuitupou, Hamilton; Carter, Weepu; Tialata, Oliver, Hayman, Jack, Williams, Thorne, McCaw (captain), So’oialo.
Replacements: Hore, Somerville, Rawlinson, Masoe, Cowan, McAlister, Toeava.
South Africa: Montgomery; Paulse, Fourie, Olivier, Habana; James, Du Preez; Du Randt, Smit (captain), Van der Linde, Van den Bergh, Matfield, Tyibilika, Smith, Cronje.
Replacements: Pietersen, Bosman, Januarie, Van Niekerk, Muller, Andrews, Coetzee.
