South Africa turned history upside down and affirmed their world rugby champion credentials with a breathtaking 30-28 Tri-Nations defeat of the All Blacks here last night.
The Springboks snatched victory with a brilliant solo try to Ricky Januarie four minutes from the end when they were down to 14 men and it was fitting that the feisty halfback should kick the ball into touch in the final act as he was the game’s standout player.
He was hugged by his adjacent reserve bench teammates, all fully aware of what they had achieved.
Defeat means the All Blacks’ world record run of home victories comes to an end at 30 while the South Africans end a decade of losses in New Zealand.
It was also their first win at Carisbrook in eight visits.
A much more hardened Springboks pack shaded the forward battle and they deserved to win after showing vast improvement from last week’s 8-19 loss at Wellington.
As with that game, it appeared the deadly goalkicking boot of All Blacks five-eighth Dan Carter would prove the difference but Januarie’s effort gave them a two-try-to-one advantage.
His team trailing 23-28, he darted from a ruck 40m out and chipped past replacement fullback Leon MacDonald, regathered and swan dived over. A calm replacement centre Francois Steyn slotted the conversion to hit the front.
The visitors then defended with resilience, watching one dropped goal attempt from Daniel Carter sail wide and charging down the other.
Carter could hardly be blamed for the defeat, having another controlled display and scoring 23 points via seven from seven goal kicks and a dropped goal.
Both teams tried to play with pace but the match was largely dominated by the whistle of Australian referee Matt Goddard, who was hard on anything that resembled foul play and kept an eagle eye on the breakdown.
The Springboks led 17-15 at halftime but it seemed it may not be enough after playing into the wind.
Human dynamo Schalk Burger was at the forefront of another vigorous forward effort, making countless heavy tackles.
The Springboks lineout operated like clockwork, their scrum was much improved from last week and their better kicking game allowed them to play with more structure.
Carter had the All Blacks 6-0 up inside 10 minutes with two penalties.
It kick-started a penalty goal duel, with Springboks fullback Montgomery kicking one, Carter one, Montgomery two and Carter one to have the hosts 12-9 up.
Williams’ departure seemed to lift the Springboks who scored their first try to recalled right winger JP Pietersen from a stable 5m scrum which allowed No.8 Joe van Niekerk ample room to put his winger over.
Five-eighth Butch James landed a dropped goal before Carter landed a sideline penalty on the stroke of halftime to reduce the margin to two.
After 15min camped on attack, the All Blacks finally broke through in the second half through reserve No.8 Sione Lauaki, who charged 15m to score with just his second touch.
James narrowed the margin with a penalties either side of a wobbly Carter dropped goal, just the second in his Test career, to leave the score at 25-23 with 12 minutes to play.
A decisive moment appeared to come soon afterwards when Victor Matfield was sinbinned for a high tackle on Lauaki, from which Carter landed a penalty.
However, Januarie’s brilliant try and conversion by Steyn turned history on its head.
South Africa inside centre Jean de Villiers said the team were over the moon at having carved out tonight’s historic win.
“It took us a 100 years (to win in Dunedin) and it might take us another 100 years to win another one but we’re ecstatic.
“The guys have been working hard on what we did wrong last week (in the first match) and we seemed to get it right today,” said de Villiers who filled in as captain while Matfield was sinbinned.
“When we scored that (Januarie’s) try we told ourselves three years ago we were in the same position and let it slip so we stuck to our guns today.”
All Blacks skipper Rodney So’oialo said South Africa had played right to the end and stole the game away.
“Obviously the territory wasn’t that good for us — we played at the wrong side of the field and got punished.
“The second half was a lot better than the first, unfortunately we couldn’t put it away.”
All Blacks coach Graham Henry said while he could not speak highly enough of his young team, he was disappointed to have lost.
“We showed lot of skill in the second half and we just didn’t get enough points in the finish. It was a marvellous game of rugby (but) disappointing result.”
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