New Zealand break the record

New Zealand successfully broke the record for consecutive wins after claiming a 37-10 victory against Australia at Eden Park on Saturday.

The win means that they finally break the 17-match streak that was only held by themselves and South Africa previously and extend it to 18.  The All Blacks were on the cusp of making the record last year before Australia beat them 27-19 in Sydney.

New Zealand scored six tries in an uncharacteristically error-ridden game from them.  They seemed to stutter through a lot of the game instead of demonstrating their usual silky play.  Australia didn't create too many opportunities on attack but looked in control as soon as they started moving.

In classic All Black fashion though, they pulled their performance together in the second-half, turning a fairly close game into a blow-out.

The half-time score was 15-7 to New Zealand after three tries from the home side and Australia were creeping into the game with a solitary five-pointer from second-row Rory Arnold.

After Julian Savea scored his two tries he rose to fourth on the all-time New Zealand try scoring rankings with 45 five-pointers to his name.

Australia had the chance to draw first blood but Bernard Foley's kick for goal was carried away by the wind.  Australia's missed opportunity was New Zealand's gain as the home side counter-attacked immediately and sent the ball quickly down the backline for Israel Dagg to score in the corner.

The All Blacks struck again after the Australian defensive line came up too quickly which gave centre Anton Lienert-Brown a gap, which he took astutely and scored his side's second try of the match 10 minutes in, making the score 10-0 to the home side.

Australia were close to scoring after a great run from Samu Kerevi who broke the All Black line and was close to the try line before being tackled.  He just got a pass away but the offload went forward and Australia lost the momentum.

Australia finally got on the scoreboard after some great work from Dane Haylett-Petty and Reece Hodge, whose searing runs took the ball right up field before the ball was swung to Arnold who stretched over the line, making the score 10-7.

New Zealand struck back immediately though after Australia were pushed back into their 22 and Hodge tried to clear.  But TJ Perenara was too quick off the line and was able to knock the kick down, collect and score for his side's third try.

Australia were the first to score in the second-half when they were awarded a penalty in front of the sticks and Foley made no mistake in grabbing his side three points which made the score 15 to 10.

Australia then almost equalised after Foley ran the ball down the midfield, deceived the defence with a fantastic dummy before sending the ball wide to Henry Speight.  But the try was disallowed after Haylett-Petty ran in front of Savea and blocked him according to the referee.

The visitors seemed to be really picking up momentum after some great building phases before Nick Phipps made a great break and got an offload out to Speight who knocked the ball on.  New Zealand full-back Ben Smith jumped on the opportunity to counter, and ran the ball downfield before grubbering it forward for Savea to pick up and score.  Five minutes later Savea scored his second try after a strong run, busting two tackles in the process.

New Zealand hooker Dane Coles then scored after the ever industrious Savea broke straight through the Australian line before being pulled down just before the whitewash.  The winger then showed impressive presence of mind to pop the ball off for Coles to score to put the icing on the cake for the All Blacks.

The scorers:

For New Zealand:
Tries:  Dagg, Lienert-Brown, Savea 2, Coles
Cons:  Cruden
Pen:  Cruden

For Australia:
Try:  Arnold
Con:  Foley
Pen:  Foley

New Zealand:  15 Ben Smith, 14 Israel Dagg, 13 Anton Lienert-Brown, 12 Ryan Crotty, 11 Julian Savea, 10 Beauden Barrett, 9 TJ Perenara, 8 Kieran Read (c), 7 Matt Todd, 6 Jerome Kaino, 5 Samuel Whitelock, 4 Brodie Retallick, 3 Owen Franks, 2 Dane Coles, 1 Joe Moody
Replacements:  16 Codie Taylor, 17 Wyatt Crockett, 18 Charlie Faumuina, 19 Liam Squire, 20 Ardie Savea, 21 Tawera Kerr-Barlow, 22 Aaron Cruden, 23 Malakai Fekitoa

Australia:  15 Israel Folau, 14 Dane Haylett-Petty, 13 Samu Kerevi, 12 Reece Hodge, 11 Henry Speight, 10 Bernard Foley, 9 Nick Phipps, 8 Lopeti Timani, 7 Michael Hooper, 6 Dean Mumm, 5 Adam Coleman, 4 Rory Arnold, 3 Sekope Kepu, 2 Stephen Moore (c), 1 Scott Sio
Replacements:  16 James Hanson, 17 Tom Robertson, 18 Allan Ala'alatoa, 19 Rob Simmons, 20 David Pocock, 21 Nick Frisby, 22 Quade Cooper, 23 Sefa Naivalu

Referee:  Nigel Owens (Wales)
Assistant Referees:  Craig Joubert (South Africa), Marius van der Westhuizen (South Africa)
TMO:  Shaun Veldsman (South Africa

Australia beat sloppy Argentina

Australia ended the Rugby Championship with a victory as they overcame Argentina 33-21 at Twickenham on Saturday to finish in second spot.

48,515 fans were in attendance for a fixture that the Pumas will have nightmares over as they lost a game they probably should have won.

Early missed penalties from Santiago González Iglesias — in for the injured Nicolás Sánchez at fly-half — coupled by two Australia yellow cards and a contentious try will leave the Pumas wondering what might have been.  Ultimately they finish with the Rugby Championship wooden spoon.

Australia, in contrast, will be thankful for Bernard Foley's boot while Adam Coleman, Samu Kerevi (2) and Dean Mumm picked up tries.

It was a nightmare first 10 minutes for Argentina as they had a try chalked off due to offside against Iglesias and then the TMO, Rowan Kitt, controversially allowed Wallaby second-row Coleman a try after Dane Haylett-Petty looked to have lost the ball in an earlier phase.

With Foley adding a penalty a minute later, Australia were in a good position at 10-0 to the good.  The Pumas meanwhile were rightly upset.

Seeing flanker Michael Hooper sent to the bin for a high-tackle improved their mood on 17 minutes and when Matías Alemanno crashed over from close-range they were back in the game.  Unfortunately Iglesias missed his second attempt at goal from the conversion so it remained 5-10.

Foley was having no such trouble off the tee as his second penalty moved Australia into a 13-5 lead before Hooper returned to the fray.

Iglesias' woes continued before the half-hour when another penalty kick went awry.  One feared that not even a second yellow card for the Wallabies, this time going the way of Coleman for a high tackle, would result in Argentina winning if they didn't sort out their kicking.

Their next issue was the line-out and an overthrow from Agustín Creevy that led to Kerevi powerfully finishing off a try to make it 18-5.  But fortunately for the Pumas Kerevi offended from the resulting restart, allowing Iglesias to fire over his first points before the break.

It was game on six minutes into the second-half as Martin Landajo's quick thinking from five metres out saw him tap before he sent De la Fuente over the whitewash.  With Iglesias kicking the conversion suddenly the Pumas were right back in the game at just 15-18 behind.

But then came a moment that took the wind out of Argentina as a fumble in midfield led to Kerevi racing over for his brace on 49 minutes.  Iglesias did hit back via a scrum penalty five minutes later but they were down by seven points, lamenting that earlier handling mistake.

It was perhaps fitting that a Pumas error led to the final score of the game as this time a loose pass was gobbled up by Mumm, who set off for the unconverted try that gave the Wallabies a bonus-point victory.

The scorers:

For Argentina:
Tries:  Alemanno, De la Fuente
Cons:  Iglesias
Pens:  Iglesias 3

For Australia:
Tries:  Coleman, Kerevi 2, Mumm
Cons:  Foley 2
Pens:  Foley 3
Yellow Cards:  Hooper (16 mins — high tackle), Coleman (30 mins — high tackle)

Argentina:  15 Joaquín Tuculet, 14 Matías Moroni, 13 Matías Orlando, 12 Jerónimo De la Fuente, 11 Ramiro Moyano, 10 Santiago González Iglesias, 9 Martín Landajo, 8 Leonardo Senatore, 7 Javier Ortega Desio, 6 Pablo Matera, 5 Matías Alemanno, 4 Guido Petti, 3 Ramiro Herrera, 2 Agustín Creevy, 1 Lucas Noguera
Replacements:  16 Julian Montoya, 17 Santiago García Botta, 18 Enrique Pieretto, 19 Marcos Kremer, 20 Juan Manuel Leguizamon, 21 Tomás Cubelli, 22 Gabriel Ascarate, 23 Lucas González Amorosino

Australia:  15 Israel Folau, 14 Dane Haylett-Petty, 13 Samu Kerevi, 12 Bernard Foley, 11 Reece Hodge, 10 Quade Cooper, 9 Will Genia, 8 Lopeti Timani, 7 Michael Hooper, 6 Dean Mumm, 5 Adam Coleman, 4 Rory Arnold, 3 Sekope Kepu, 2 Stephen Moore (c), 1 Scott Sio
Replacements:  16 James Hanson, 17 Tom Robertson, 18 Allan Alaalatoa, 19 Kane Douglas, 20 Scott Fardy, 21 Leroy Houston, 22 Nick Phipps, 23 Tevita Kuridrani

Referee:  Mathieu Raynal (France)
Assistant Referees:  JP Doyle (England), Matthew Carley (England)
TMO:  Rowan Kitt (England)

All Blacks humiliate Springboks to equal Test record

New Zealand equalled the record of 17 consecutive Test wins with a 57-15 victory over the Springboks at Kings Park on Saturday.

This was as one-sided a game as you will see at Test level.

It was a record Test defeat for South Africa and New Zealand's fourth win in a row over the Springboks as they finished the Rugby Championship unbeaten with six bonus-point victories.

It was a phenomenal second-half performance by the All Blacks who scored 45 points in the second 40 and conceded only six.

For the Boks it doesn't get much worse than this.  Adriaan Strauss will want to forget his final Test on home soil as soon as possible.

They say statistics don't lie and there certainly is nowhere for the Springboks to hide.

No team can hope to win a Test against any team, let alone the All Blacks, when you miss 33 tackles (85 out of 118), have to contend with 31 percent possession while playing more than 70 percent of the game in your own half.

It was a comprehensive display by the world champions against a Bok side who, like a week ago against Australia, offered absolutely nothing on attack despite making 14 turnovers.

South Africa were forced to defend the whole game and whether they wanted to or not it was never going to be sustainable for 80 minutes.

The start was encouraging as the Boks showed plenty of energy and drive which was rewared with two Morné Steyn penalties.  Steyn again kept South Africa in the game and they were extremely lucky to only be trailing 12-9 at half time.

New Zealand were far from their best in the first 20 minutes and made some uncharacteristic mistakes as a few offloads didn't go to hand while they were also guilty of too many handling errors.

Despite not being very clinical early on the All Blacks dominated the ball and played all their rugby in the Springboks half.

They were relentless on the attack and tested the Bok defence constantly which was too passive as they failed to keep the All Black ball carriers behind the advantage line.

Israel Dagg opened the scoring for the All Blacks after sustained pressure on the hosts' try line.  It all started when Steyn failed to find touch from inside his 22.

Three missed tackles allowed New Zealand back in Springbok territory as Dagg jogged over unapposed despite some desperate Bok defence.

Another Steyn penalty gave the hosts a 9-5 lead before TJ Perenara scored a controversial try to win back the lead.  The scrum-half was brought down just before the Bok line and seemed to have lost the ball forward before regaining control and grounding it over the line.

After numerous replays the try was awarded which gave the All Blacks the lead for the first time in the match which they never surrendered.

New Zealand ran 758 metres in this Test compared to the 174 the Boks managed to make and they were rewarded with nine tries, seven in the second half, as Israel Dagg, Perenara and Beauden Barrett scored a brace each.  Codie Taylor, Ben Smith and Liam Squire also got on the score sheet.

What is clear for the Boks is that their gameplan simply isn't working.  It's also difficult to see Chean Roux stay on as defence coach.

Allister Coetzee is not known as an attack-minded coach and will need to bring in some outside help for the end-of-year tour.

The scorers:

For South Africa:
Pens:  Steyn 5
Yellow Card:  De Jager

For New Zealand:
Tries:  Dagg 2, Perenara 2, Barrett 2, Taylor, Smith, Squire
Cons:  Barrett 4, Sopoaga 2
Yellow Card:  Taylor

South Africa:  15 Patrick Lambie, 14 Francois Hougaard, 13 Juan de Jongh, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Morne Steyn, 9 Faf de Klerk, 8 Warren Whiteley, 7 Teboho Mohoje, 6 Francois Louw, 5 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Vincent Koch, 2 Adriaan Strauss (c), 1 Tendai Mtawarira
Replacements:  16 Bongi Mbonambi, 17 Stephen Kitshoff, 18 Julian Redelinghuys, 19 Lood de Jager, 20 Willem Alberts, 21 Jaco Kriel, 22 Lionel Mapoe, 23 Willie le Roux

New Zealand:  15 Ben Smith, 14 Israel Dagg, 13 Anton Lienert-Brown, 12 Ryan Crotty, 11 Waisake Naholo, 10 Beauden Barrett, 9 TJ Perenara, 8 Kieran Read (c), 7 Matt Todd, 6 Jerome Kaino, 5 Samuel Whitelock, 4 Brodie Retallick, 3 Owen Franks, 2 Dane Coles, 1 Joe Moody
Replacements:  16 Codie Taylor, 17 Wyatt Crockett, 18 Charlie Faumuina, 19 Liam Squire, 20 Ardie Savea, 21 Tawera Kerr-Barlow, 22 Lima Sopoaga, 23 George Moala

Referee:  Jérôme Garcès (France)
Assistant Referees:  Johnny Lacey (Ireland), George Clancy (Ireland)
TMO:  Jim Yuille (Scotland)

Clinical win for New Zealand

New Zealand made it five bonus-point victories out of five in this year's Rugby Championship as they beat Argentina 36-17 on Saturday.

The comfortable nature of the win came as a result of a four-minute spell at the end of the first half that saw the visitors score three tries.

In total they crossed five times — through Anton Lienert-Brown, Ryan Crotty, Dane Coles, TJ Perenara and Ben Smith — with Lienert-Brown having a hand in Crotty, Coles and Smith's tries to cap an impressive solo performance.

Facundo Isa was again a rock for the Pumas and was rewarded with a try for his team while Joaquín Tuculet added their other score late on.

As previously said, it was a wonderful first half for the All Blacks, who ran in four tries through Lienert-Brown, Crotty, Coles and Perenara for a 29-3 lead.

Things had started fairly positively for Argentina as they stood up well in the early exchanges and they will feel hard done to when they re-watch the game and find captain Agustín Creevy was denied a try on 18 minutes when the referee thought Isa had knocked on.  In fact the impressive number eight had the ball ripped from his grasp in contact by a New Zealander which meant Jaco Peyper's call was incorrect.

Boy did the All Blacks make them pay from then on as, despite only leading by three Barrett points, they opted for scrums, not shots at goal in the red zone.  That led to their first try as the aforementioned fly-half found Lienert-Brown who crashed over to make it 10-0.

Nicolás Sánchez got Argentina on the board on 34 minutes following a ruck offence, but then came a triple combination that floored Argentina.

After Israel Dagg was denied brilliantly by Pumas outside centre Matías Moroni on the right wing, New Zealand pounced on a loose line-out and Lienert-Brown was this time the provider, setting up midfield partner Crotty for a converted try that made it 17-3 after 36 minutes.

Lienert-Brown was involved again two minutes later as Santiago González Iglesias' charged-down clearing kick led to Dagg finding his centre who in turn offloaded to Coles.  At 24-3 behind the Pumas would have been desperate for the sanctuary of the changing room.  It wasn't over.

New Zealand struck again before the turnaround, arguably their best try of the half, as a breakout from their own 22 saw Perenara go over.

The onslaught continued soon after the break and again it was Lienert-Brown heavily involved as his tackle bust and offload sent in Smith.  The full-back's try was converted by Barrett as New Zealand moved 36-3 in front with 34 minutes still to play at Estádio José Amalfitani.

New Zealand head coach Steve Hansen knew there was surely no coming back for Argentina, which meant the debut of full-back Damian McKenzie happened sooner than originally predicted.  He replaced Crotty as Smith moved forward to outside centre in a reshuffle to the backline.

That however prompted a much-improved spell for the Pumas as, with Joe Moody sin-binned for a swinging arm, the hosts turned the screw at scrum time five metres out.  Eventually their power told and it was Isa picking and dotting down under the post to reduce matters to 36-10.

Buenos Aires was rocking and the volume further increased as they pressed for their second try, Sánchez denied by a last-ditch tackle from Patrick Tuipulotu which was deemed high by the officials.  He wasn't sin-binned but Liam Squire was soon after for persistent team offsides.

Somehow though New Zealand survived that sustained period on their line thanks to a determined and streetwise effort which they used as a springboard to go down to the other end of the field and almost score.  It was Julian Savea who went close but lost the ball over the line.

Perhaps fittingly, due to their physical performance in the second-half, Argentina did have the final say on the scoreboard as Tuculet got hold of a cross-field kick to dive over in the right-hand corner, Iglesias adding the touchline conversion that saw them finish within 19.

The scorers:

For Argentina:
Tries:  Isa, Tuculet
Cons:  Sánchez, Iglesias
Pen:  Sánchez

For New Zealand:
Tries:  Lienert-Brown, Crotty, Coles, Perenara, B Smith
Cons:  Barrett 4
Pen:  Barrett
Yellow Cards:  Moody (52 min — swinging arm), Squire (65 min — offside)

Argentina:  15 Joaquín Tuculet, 14 Santiago Cordero, 13 Matías Moroni, 12 Santiago González Iglesias, 11 Ramiro Moyano, 10 Nicolás Sánchez, 9 Martín Landajo (c), 8 Facundo Isa, 7 Javier Ortega Desio, 6 Pablo Matera, 5 Matías Alemanno, 4 Guido Petti, 3 Ramiro Herrera, 2 Agustín Creevy, 1 Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro
Replacements:  16 Julian Montoya, 17 Lucas Noguera, 18 Enrique Pieretto, 19 Juan Manuel Leguizamon, 20 Leonardo Senatore, 21 Tomás Cubelli, 22 Jerónimo De la Fuente, 23 Matías Orlando

New Zealand:  15 Ben Smith, 14 Israel Dagg, 13 Anton Lienert-Brown, 12 Ryan Crotty, 11 Julian Savea, 10 Beauden Barrett, 9 TJ Perenara, 8 Kieran Read (c), 7 Ardie Savea, 6 Liam Squire, 5 Brodie Retallick, 4 Patrick Tuipulotu, 3 Owen Franks, 2 Dane Coles, 1 Joe Moody
Replacements:  16 Codie Taylor, 17 Wyatt Crockett, 18 Ofa Tu'ungafasi, 19 Samuel Whitelock, 20 Elliot Dixon, 21 Tawera Kerr-Barlow, 22 Lima Sopoaga, 23 Damian McKenzie

Referee:  Jaco Peyper (South Africa)
Assistant Referees:  Angus Gardner (Australia), Marius van der Westhuizen (South Africa)
TMO:  Johan Greeff (South Africa)

Springboks return to winning ways

South Africa returned to the victory trail when they secured a deserved 18-10 triumph over Australia in their Rugby Championship clash in Pretoria on Saturday.

An accomplished kicking display from Morne Steyn, who scored all his team's points, guided the home side to victory although the Wallabies scored the game's only try early in the first half when Scott Sio went over the whitewash.

The result means the Boks ended a three-match losing streak and they move above the Wallabies into second place in the standings.

Despite their win, there are still question marks about the Boks though as the Wallabies dominated the territorial stakes and spent large parts of the game in the home side's half.

Springbok head coach Allister Coetzee's decision to go with a six/two, forwards/backs split backfired on him as the Boks lost the services of Jesse Kriel in the first half as well as Bryan Habana and Rudy Paige early in the second half.

This meant that the Boks were forced to play with Jaco Kriel on the left wing during the game's final quarter.  But to their credit, the Boks showed great character and a solid defensive effort in the second half secured them this result.

The home side's captain Adriaan Strauss deserves special praise as he led from the front in what was by far his best Test of the season.  He was named the official man of the match.

The Boks made a bright start and after taking the ball through several phases with their forwards, Steyn opened the scoring with a well-taken drop goal in the fifth minute.

The Wallabies were soon level, however, when Bernard Foley landed a penalty after Eben Etzebeth was penalised for taking Sean McMahon out off the ball midway between the halfway line and South Africa's 22.

Five minutes later, Habana failed to find touch and Israel Folau launched a counter-attack from inside his 22.  The ball went through several pairs of hands and the Wallabies were soon close to the home side's try-line.

Will Genia then threw a long pass to Sekope Kepu who did well to offload to his front row partner Sio,who went over under the posts for his first Test try.

Australia had a chance to increase their lead in the 23rd minute, when Vincent Koch was blown up for a scrum infringement midway between the halfway line and the visitors' 22, but Reece Hodge's monster effort landed just short of the cross-bar.

Three minutes later, Steyn narrowed the gap to four points with a penalty, after several Wallabies went off their feet at a ruck.  South Africa were then handed a lifeline in the 35th minute when Folau was yellow carded for taking Habana out off the ball after the Bok flyer had chipped ahead, close to the Wallabies' 22.

Steyn made no mistake with the subsequent place-kick which meant the game was evenly poised with score at 10-9 to the visitors.  South Africa upped the ante on attack but couldn't round off their attacking chances but they regained the lead on the stroke of half-time when Steyn added his third penalty after Australia strayed offside on defence.

There wasn't much to report during the early exchanges in the second half although the Wallabies had two golden opportunities to take lead but Hodge missed two shots at goal in quick succession.

Steyn also had an opportunity to extend his side's lead on the hour mark but his penalty attempt, from 55 metres out, was also off target.

The rest of the half was a war of attrition as both sides tried to gain the ascendancy but although the Wallabies spent large parts of the half camped inside the Boks' half, they committed a plethora of handling handling errors which proved costly in the end.

Steyn scored the first points of the half in the 76th minute when he landed a penalty from close quarters after the Wallabies were penalised for a ruck infringement and the pivot sealed the result when he slotted his second drop goal in the game's closing stages.

The scorers:

For South Africa:
Pens:  Steyn 4
Drop goals:  Steyn 2

For Australia:
Try:  Sio
Con:  Foley
Pen:  Foley
Yellow Card:  Folau

South Africa:  15 Patrick Lambie, 14 Bryan Habana, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Juan de Jongh, 11 Francois Hougaard, 10 Morne Steyn, 9 Rudy Paige, 8 Warren Whiteley, 7 Teboho Mohoje, 6 Francois Louw, 5 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Vincent Koch, 2 Adriaan Strauss (c), 1 Tendai Mtawarira
Replacements:  16 Bongi Mbonambi, 17 Stephen Kitshoff, 18 Julian Redelinghuys, 19 Lood de Jager, 20 Willem Alberts, 21 Jaco Kriel, 22 Willie le Roux, 23 Lionel Mapoe

Australia:  15 Israel Folau, 14 Dane Haylett-Petty, 13 Samu Kerevi, 12 Bernard Foley, 11 Reece Hodge, 10 Quade Cooper, 9 Will Genia, 8 Sean McMahon, 7 Michael Hooper, 6 Dean Mumm, 5 Adam Coleman, 4 Rob Simmons, 3 Sekope Kepu, 2 Stephen Moore (c), 1 Scott Sio
Replacements:  16 James Hanson, 17 James Slipper, 18 Tom Robertson, 19 Kane Douglas, 20 Scott Fardy, 21 Nick Phipps, 22 Tevita Kuridrani, 23 Sefa Naivalu

Referee:  Wayne Barnes (England)
Assistant Referees:  Johnny Lacey (Ireland), George Clancy (Ireland)
TMO:  Jim Yuille (Scotland)