Springboks edge All Blacks 29-24 in Soweto to take 2-1 series lead

South Africa beat New Zealand 29-24 at Soccer City in Soweto on Saturday to take a 2-1 lead in the Greatest Rivalry series, with the Springboks scoring four tries to the All Blacks’ four in a match that turned in the final quarter.

The world champions trailed 17-12 after 55 minutes before Jesse Kriel barged through Leroy Carter to put South Africa ahead for the first time in the match. Malcolm Marx then plunged over from a driving maul and Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu kicked a 70th-minute penalty to push the lead to 26-17. Samisoni Taukei’aho scored in the final play, but the conversion left the visitors five points short.

As BBC News Africa reported on 5 September, the win gives South Africa a 2-1 lead going into the fourth and final Test in Baltimore next weekend. New Zealand, who won the opening match of the series, need a win there to draw the series.

For a South African audience, the result is the fourth time in three matches that the two sides have finished within a single score of each other. The All Blacks have now pushed the Springboks close in every meeting of the series, and the margin in Soweto was five points.

The match drew 85,976 people to Soccer City, the stadium that hosted the 2010 Fifa World Cup final. The crowd went through its celebratory songbook in the final quarter, including a version of a Cranberries song adapted in honour of head coach Rassie Erasmus.

Before kick-off, captain Siya Kolisi called on his team to honour those who died in nearby Soweto during the fight against apartheid. The stadium sits in the township that was central to the 1976 student uprising.

New Zealand coach Dave Rennie had criticised South Africa’s scrum technique after the second Test in Cape Town the previous weekend, saying the Springbok front row had been walking around their opposite numbers. The scrum answered in Soweto. Marx, Wilco Louw and Ox Nche drove the All Blacks pack backwards to force a penalty try that levelled the scores at 12-12 at half-time, and scrum pressure in the second half forced replacement prop Fletcher Newell to his knees, setting up the position from which Marx scored.

South Africa lost Cheslin Kolbe to a head knock in the first half and played part of the match with Feinberg-Mngomezulu in the sin bin after he was shown yellow for knocking down Ardie Savea’s offload. Savea scored two first-half tries for New Zealand before leaving the field with a shoulder injury. All Black discipline also cost them, with a string of penalties in the first half leading to Kurt-Lee Arendse’s 21st-minute try.

Kriel’s try came two minutes after Will Jordan had chased his own kick ahead to give New Zealand a 17-12 lead. Feinberg-Mngomezulu converted both second-half tries and added the late penalty.

The series now moves to the United States. New Zealand have won on South African soil only once before, in 1996, when the Incomparables returned home with a 2-1 series victory.

Source: BBC News Africa, South Africa finish strongly to take 2-1 series lead against All Blacks.