New Zealand 25 South Africa 12

Date:  22 Jul 2000
Venue:  Christchurch
Attendance:  38000
Referee:  White c.

Christian Cullen was the hero as the All Blacks ground out a 25-12 victory over the Springboks in a colourless Tri-nations encounter at Jade Stadium in Christchurch on Saturday afternoon.

The All Black fullback survived a fearsome collision with Corne Krige in the first minute to score two tries and use his blistering pace to deny Breyton Paulse a five-pointer at a critical stage of the second half.

Cullen's crisply-taken tries represented two of the few highlights in a game that was defence dominated, the balance of the points coming through penalty goals and dropped goals.

After the champagne rugby produced in Sydney the previous weekend, when 10 tries were registered as New Zealand defeated Australia 39-35, this was flat beer indeed, with the fans expressing disappointment as poured out of Jade Stadium.

But All Black coach Wayne Smith was smiling because his team has now won two out of two in the Tri-nations championship.

"Last week we won with exhilarating running rugby," said Smith, "and this week we proved we could grind out a victory.  It was an important result in the development of this team."

All Black skipper Todd Blackadder acknowledged that the game did not live up to the highs of last weekend:  "It was a great physical game and there were a lot more errors than against Australia.  But that is to do with pressure," he said.

Springbok captain Andre Vos said New Zealand deserved to win.

"Our handling let us down and we were turning the ball over.  The All Blacks defended outstandingly," he said.

The performances of the two fullbacks wielded a major influence on the outcome of this game.  If Cullen was man of the match, Percy Montgomery was undoubtedly bunny of the match, turning in a shocker in the No 15 jersey.

Cullen gave the All Blacks a winning break in the opening 15 minutes, but only after being knocked flat in a spectacular head-on collision with Krige, less than 60 seconds after kick-off.

Alarm spread through the All Black bench when it looked as though Cullen had been knocked unconscious.  But he was only dazed and after three minutes on the sideline returned to action.

Within a minute of his return he was running in his 36th test try for New Zealand, courtesy of a precision grubber kick by Andrew Mehrtens and a woeful attempted flykick by Montgomery.

Test try No 37 followed soon afterwards, this time thanks to a superb long pass from Mehrtens across the noses of Pita Alatini and Jonah Lomu.

That score -- which leaves Cullen only two short of Jeff Wilson's New Zealand Test record -- gave the All Blacks a 10-3 advantage and the crowd settled back to enjoy the tryfest.

They were to be hugely disappointed.  The remaining 66 minutes produced six penalty goals, two dropped goals and no further tries.

The Springboks had two golden scoring opportunities, one in the first minute when Justin Marshall stayed abreast of Werner Swanepoel in a desperate sprint to the goalline and managed to knock the ball away from the Springbok's grasp.

If that was an exciting race, the sprint between Cullen and Paulse (with the score at 22-12) was worthy of the Olympics.  The two fastest individuals in the game gave it everything over 40 metres with Cullen getting his nose in front, enough to nudge the ball safely over the deadball line.

Although the Springboks enjoyed an advantage in possession and territory, the All Blacks importantly secured four of the South African's lineout throws, a major achievement given their lineout woes in Sydney last weekend.

Norm Maxwell, who replaced Troy Flavell at halftime (after Flavell suffered a minor injury), was responsible for three of those steals.

The Boks, coming off losses to England and Australia, certainly had enough ball to win, recycling it well, but they were unable to break New Zealand's water-tight defence and often looking pedestrian along the backline.

The defence from both sets of loose forwards was outstanding, with Josh Kronfeld, Taine Randell, Rassie Erasmus and Krige achieving massive tackle counts.

Todd Blackadder, captaining the All Blacks in his home town for the first time, turned in a big game, as did Mehrtens.

Man of the match
Christian Cullen was the most commanding individual, by a wide margin.  Ran in the game's only two tries and denied the Springboks a five-pointer with a burst of speed worthy of the Olympic Games 100 metres final.

Villain of the match
Percy Montgomery has produced many outstanding performances for his country, but this would probably rank as his worst display.  Presented Cullen his first try with a flykick that missed and registered a fearful catalogue of blunders back at fullback.

Moment of match
The Olympic sprint between the game's speedsters, Cullen and Paulse, won by Cullen, to deny the South Africans the try they needed to get back into the game in the second half.

New Zealand 25 South Africa 12 Half-time 19-12

New Zealand:  Christian Cullen (Leon McDonald 1, Cullen 5);  Tana Umaga, Mark Robinson, Pita Alatini, Jonah Lomu;  Andrew Mehrtens (Tony Brown 67), Justin Marshall;  Ron Cribb, Josh Kronfeld (Scott Robertson 73), Taine Randell;  Todd Blackadder (capt.), Troy Flavell (Norm Maxwell 46);  Kees Meeuws, Anton Oliver (Mark Hammer 61), Carl Hoeft (Craig Dowd 48) Replacement not used:  Byron Kelleher

New Zealand:  Tries:  Christian Cullen (2);  Penalty goals:  Andrew Mehrtens (3), Tony Brown;  Drop goal:  Mehrtens

South Africa:  Percy Montgomery;  Tinus Delport, Robbie Fleck (Grant,Esterhuizen 74), De Wet Barry, Breyton Paulse;  Braam van Straaten, Werner Swanepoel (Joost van der Wethuizen 74);  Andre Vos (capt.), Johan Erasmus, Cornus Krige (Warren Brosnihan 1, Krige 6);  Andre Venter, Albert van den Berg (Jannes Labushchagne 70);  Cobus Visage (Willie Meyer 65), Charl Marais, Robbie Kempson (John Smit 34, 74) Replacement not used:  Chester Williams

South Africa:  Penalty goals:  Braam van Straaten (3);  Drop goal:  Percy Montgomery

Referee:  Chris White (Eng)