The All Blacks produced a stunning second-half display to beat the Springboks 33-16 at Ellis Park in the first Test of the Greatest Rivalry series, surviving a ferocious scrum onslaught before running in five tries to one to take a 1-0 lead. It was New Zealand’s biggest winning margin at the famous Johannesburg ground and ended the Springboks’ 12-Test unbeaten run.
Key moments
2 mins – Roigard’s first box kick charged down by Eben Etzebeth, but the lock was offside. Love finds touch from the penalty. An early sign of the Springboks’ intent.
5 mins – PENALTY SOUTH AFRICA: Cheslin Kolbe kicks a penalty after Codie Taylor is penalised for dissent following a ruck infringement. (South Africa 3–0 All Blacks)
9 mins – TRY ALL BLACKS: Will Jordan squeezes over in the right corner after Cam Roigard fires a sharp flat pass to the short side from the base of a rolling maul. Roigard had earlier dummied before the All Blacks sent multiple forwards at the line. Love’s conversion misses from the touchline. (South Africa 3–5 All Blacks)
10 mins – Kurt-Lee Arendse forced off for HIA after a head clash with Josh Lord. Andre Esterhuizen replaces him, with Jesse Kriel moving to the wing.
14 mins – TRY SOUTH AFRICA: Andre Esterhuizen powers through Josh Moorby’s tackle to score. The replacement centre had only been on the park for minutes. Kolbe converts from the right. (South Africa 10–5 All Blacks)
23 mins – TRY ALL BLACKS: Josh Moorby scores after Tupou Vaa’i surges down the left touchline and dishes a brilliant one-handed offload inside. A set-piece move from a lineout that caught the Springboks cold. Love converts. (South Africa 10–12 All Blacks)
27 mins – PENALTY SOUTH AFRICA: Kolbe kicks a penalty after the All Blacks’ scrum is driven backwards, Ethan de Groot penalised for collapsing. The Springboks regain the lead. (South Africa 13–12 All Blacks)
35 mins – Marx denied by Barrett. The Springboks launch a rolling maul that rumbles towards the line, but Jordie Barrett gets a crucial hand in to dislodge the ball from Malcolm Marx’s grasp. Massive defensive play.
38 mins – De Groot and Lord leave the field after a sickening head-on-head collision between the two All Blacks. George Bower and Simon Parker replace them. Vaa’i shifts from blindside to lock.
Half-time: South Africa 13–12 All Blacks. The Springboks dominated territory and the scrum, driving the All Blacks backwards repeatedly and piling on the pressure. But the tourists defended heroically, conceded just one try, and struck clinically with their limited opportunities. The scrum was a major concern. Jordan and Moorby scored but the All Blacks lost two key forwards to HIA.
47 mins – PENALTY SOUTH AFRICA: Kolbe kicks a third penalty after yet another scrum penalty against George Bower. The Springboks extend their lead to four. (South Africa 16–12 All Blacks)
48 mins – TRY ALL BLACKS: Fabian Holland charges down Grant Williams’ clearing kick and regathers to score. A moment of individual brilliance that stunned Ellis Park and put the All Blacks back in front. Love converts. (South Africa 16–19 All Blacks)
50 mins – Fletcher Newell replaces Tyrel Lomax. The scrum begins to stabilise with the replacement front row of Bower, Aumua and Newell.
52-56 mins – Springboks lay siege. Multiple scrum penalties, a held-up try attempt from Feinberg-Mngomezulu, and relentless forward drives. The All Blacks defend desperately on their own line.
56 mins – CRUCIAL SCRUM PENALTY ALL BLACKS: Fletcher Newell gets a strong shove on the tighthead side and the All Blacks are awarded a penalty from a 5m scrum. The turning point of the match. Love finds touch outside the 22.
58 mins – McKenzie breaks clear on a surging 40m run but Damian Willemse makes a try-saving tackle, knocking the ball backwards. Roigard slips at the crucial moment trying to ground the loose ball. All Blacks awarded a 5m scrum.
59 mins – TRY ALL BLACKS: Luke Jacobson scores from the base of the scrum after Savea surges off the short side. Roigard delivers a sharp flat pass to put Jacobson through Pieter-Steph du Toit’s tackle. Love converts. (South Africa 16–26 All Blacks)
70 mins – YELLOW CARD SOUTH AFRICA: Marco van Staden sin-binned for cynically playing the halfback with the All Blacks on the verge of scoring near the line.
71 mins – YELLOW CARD SOUTH AFRICA: Cobus Reinach sin-binned for a deliberate knockdown. The Springboks are down to 13 men.
75 mins – TRY ALL BLACKS: Will Jordan scores his second in the right corner after Savea floats a sublime pass from the back of a dominant scrum. Love converts from the touchline. (South Africa 16–33 All Blacks)
Full-time: South Africa 16–33 All Blacks
Tenacious, defiant, courageous — even those words barely do it justice. Amid a sea of green, against the vaunted back-to-back world champions at their spiritual home, the All Blacks burst the Springboks’ bubble with one of their greatest victories on South African soil. The 33-16 scoreline was New Zealand’s largest winning margin at Ellis Park, and it ended a run of 12 consecutive Springbok Test victories stretching back to September last year.
The match was fully representative of the 105-year rivalry between these two nations. For 55 minutes, South Africa’s power game dominated. The Springboks bullied the All Blacks at scrum time, won the collision battle, and pinned the tourists deep inside their own territory through a relentless aerial assault and their vaunted lineout drive. Yet for all their physical supremacy, they could not turn it into a game-winning points advantage. The All Blacks had only 41 per cent territory across the match but enjoyed 56 per cent possession while winning 14 turnovers to five. When it mattered most, New Zealand’s defence was immovable and their finishing was clinical.
“We were under the pump for a big chunk of that game,” head coach Dave Rennie said. “The amount of effort put into our defence and then our set piece, then we were really clinical. It was a tight game, a lot tighter than the score might suggest. Massive ticker and really proud.”
The much-feared Springbok scrum was devastating in the first half. Ethan de Groot and Tyrel Lomax were driven backwards repeatedly, conceding penalties that allowed the hosts to establish territorial dominance. Cheslin Kolbe opened the scoring with a fourth-minute penalty after Taylor was penalised for dissent, and the chants of “Scrum! Scrum! Scrum!” from the 60,592 crowd underlined where South Africa believed the match would be won.
But the All Blacks struck with precision when given the slightest opening. After eight minutes, they drove a lineout inside the 22 before Cam Roigard dummied at the base and fired a flat pass in front of three All Blacks for Will Jordan to dive over in the right corner. Love’s touchline conversion drifted wide, but the tourists had drawn first blood. Roigard’s composure and speed of delivery were central to the All Blacks’ attacking threat throughout.
The Springboks replied in kind. Kurt-Lee Arendse was forced off for an HIA after a head clash with Josh Lord, bringing Andre Esterhuizen onto the field. The powerful replacement centre needed barely five minutes to make his mark, surging through Josh Moorby’s ineffective tackle to score and restore the hosts’ lead. Kolbe converted from the right for 10-5.
Moorby made amends eight minutes later with a try that captured the All Blacks at their inventive best. From a lineout on halfway, Jordie Barrett took the tackle in midfield before the ball was worked to the blindside. Barrett’s long pass found Tupou Vaa’i on the left touchline, and the big flanker surged forward before slipping a brilliant one-handed offload inside to Moorby, who escaped one tackle and ran 25 metres to score. Love’s conversion from the touchline edged the tourists ahead 12-10.
The lead lasted barely two minutes. Another scrum penalty, this time against de Groot for collapsing, presented Kolbe with a straightforward shot that he duly converted for 13-12. From there, the Springboks laid siege. Jasper Wiese, who ran for a game-high 63 metres, was a handful every time he touched the ball. Malcolm Marx looked certain to score from a lineout maul in the 35th minute, but Barrett produced the defensive play of the match, getting a crucial hand in to dislodge the ball from the hooker’s grasp on the tryline.
The All Blacks suffered a telling setback just before the break when Lord and de Groot clashed heads while attempting a tackle, forcing both from the field. George Bower and Simon Parker replaced them, with Vaa’i switching from blindside to lock. The tourists clung to a 13-12 deficit at half-time, relieved to have conceded just one try despite absorbing enormous pressure.
Kolbe extended the Springboks’ lead to 16-12 with a third penalty six minutes into the second half after another scrum penalty against Bower. Then came the moment that changed the match. From the restart, Grant Williams shaped to clear with a box kick from 15 metres out, but the towering figure of Fabian Holland got his levers up to smother the kick, regathered the ball and sidestepped Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu to score. Love converted and the All Blacks led 19-16. Ellis Park fell silent.
“That mindset was important,” Rennie said of the second-half approach. “We wanted to hang on to the ball. There were opportunities in behind them. Off our turnover pill, we were using it pretty well. Then we were clinical. The set piece was massive in the end, the scrum came good and was a big part of our success.”
Holland’s try coincided with the introduction of Fletcher Newell at tighthead and Asafo Aumua at hooker — a move that not only relieved the scrum pressure but reversed it entirely. The Springboks, sensing their advantage was slipping, piled on the pressure. They won three consecutive scrum penalties inside the All Blacks’ 22, with Feinberg-Mngomezulu held up over the line and wave after wave of forward drives repelled by desperate defence. The home crowd bayed for a penalty try, but none came.
Then, in the 56th minute, came the turning point. From a 5m scrum on their own line — at the precise moment when conceding another penalty would almost certainly have meant a yellow card — Newell got a strong shove on the tighthead side and the All Blacks were awarded a penalty. The replacement front row of Bower, Aumua and Newell had conjured the moment that saved the match.
“The reserve front row that came on, I think we probably owe them a beer,” Roigard said. “We got a lot of energy from that.”
Bower, an unlikely hero who had not been in everyone’s predicted 23, was emotional afterwards. “Once that whistle blew and it registered that we’d won the Test match here at Ellis Park, I just got down and thanked the Lord first,” he said. “It’s not an easy place to win. You’re playing at altitude and have everything against you. What I liked about tonight is the boys stayed tight as a 23.”
From the scrum penalty, the All Blacks broke free. Jordan collected a high ball while retreating, before linking with Damian McKenzie, whose fizzing feet sparked a 40-metre breakout. McKenzie’s attempted offload was knocked backwards by Damian Willemse, and Roigard slipped at the crucial moment trying to ground the loose ball. The All Blacks were denied a score but were awarded a 5m scrum, and from it Savea surged off the short side before Roigard fired a sharp flat pass to Luke Jacobson, who burst through Pieter-Steph du Toit’s tackle to score. Love converted and the All Blacks led 26-16 with 20 minutes remaining.
The Springboks’ discipline collapsed in the final quarter. Marco van Staden was sin-binned in the 70th minute for cynically playing the halfback with the All Blacks metres from the line. Moments later, Cobus Reinach was yellow-carded for a deliberate knockdown, reducing the hosts to 13 men. With the numerical advantage, the All Blacks called for a scrum — a delicious irony given the first-half dynamics — and Savea floated a sublime pass from the base to send Jordan over in the right corner for his second. Love converted from the touchline and the match was sealed at 33-16.
“It means everything,” Jordan said after being named man of the match. “Ellis Park, what an arena. A serious shift of 80 minutes. I loved the way our boys dug deep. Some guys playing the Springboks for the first time got a taste of what it’s like. We should be proud of our whole group. It’s just one of four, but an awesome start to the series.”
Captain Ardie Savea, playing his first match of the tour after two weeks’ rest in New Zealand, was emotional as he acknowledged the All Blacks supporters dotted around the ground. “I’m really proud of my boys’ efforts,” Savea said. “It was a boxing match out there. It came down to crucial moments and we loved it in there when it was tight.”
Beaten captain Pieter-Steph du Toit was characteristically direct. “They were better than us,” du Toit said. “We made some mistakes and weren’t able to convert those opportunities we had. We shot ourselves in the foot. In a game like this, small errors count.”
Springboks coach Rassie Erasmus did not mince his words, acknowledging the result was “ugly” but framing it in the context of previous Springbok setbacks. “We have been in many catastrophic situations in our lives,” Erasmus said. “We lost the first Test against the British and Irish Lions and everyone said it was a catastrophe. We lost the first pool game against New Zealand in the World Cup and everyone said that was catastrophic. We’re now in a position where if we want to win the series we have to win three games on the trot. I wouldn’t say it’s catastrophic because there is a way out, and that’s winning three matches on the trot.”
Erasmus pointed to the 56th-minute scrum penalty as the key moment but was clear-eyed about the broader failures. “We didn’t play well. Against a class team like New Zealand, if you don’t convert, they give you a proper hiding. There were a lot of things we didn’t convert; I think there were two or three big moments when we let the game go away from us.”
Rennie, for his part, was wary of the response coming in Cape Town. “Nothing in that game was easy, and while the scoreline may sound convincing it was an absolute arm wrestle that could have gone any way,” he said. “The boys defended and defended and when we got our opportunities, we were clinical. It was a great result for us, but we are wary of the response we are going to get next week.”
There are injury concerns for both sides heading into the second Test. De Groot and Lord are almost certain to miss with their head knocks, while the Springboks lost Arendse to a failed HIA and Kolbe limped off before the final quarter. The All Blacks face the Lions at Ellis Park on Tuesday before the second Test in Cape Town next Saturday. One win does not define a series, but with this display of resilience and clinical finishing, the All Blacks — now the world’s number one ranked side — have sent a message that will reverberate across the remaining three Tests.
Teams
South Africa: 15 Damian Willemse, 14 Cheslin Kolbe, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Kurt-Lee Arendse, 10 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, 9 Grant Williams, 8 Jasper Wiese, 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit (c), 6 Paul de Villiers, 5 Ruan Nortje, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Wilco Louw, 2 Malcolm Marx, 1 Ox Nche.
Replacements: 16 Jan-Hendrik Wessels, 17 Gerhard Steenekamp, 18 Zachary Porthen, 19 Cobus Wiese, 20 Andre Esterhuizen, 21 Marco van Staden, 22 Cobus Reinach, 23 Manie Libbok.
All Blacks: 15 Damian McKenzie, 14 Will Jordan, 13 Quinn Tupaea, 12 Jordie Barrett, 11 Josh Moorby, 10 Ruben Love, 9 Cam Roigard, 8 Ardie Savea (c), 7 Luke Jacobson, 6 Tupou Vaa’i, 5 Fabian Holland, 4 Josh Lord, 3 Tyrel Lomax, 2 Codie Taylor, 1 Ethan de Groot.
Replacements: 16 Asafo Aumua, 17 George Bower, 18 Fletcher Newell, 19 Simon Parker, 20 Peter Lakai, 21 Kyle Preston, 22 Anton Lienert-Brown, 23 Leroy Carter.
Match details
South Africa 16 (Try: Esterhuizen; Conversion: Kolbe 1/1; Penalties: Kolbe 3/3)
All Blacks 33 (Tries: Jordan 2, Moorby, Holland, Jacobson; Conversions: Love 4/5)
Half-time: 13–12 (South Africa)
Venue: Ellis Park, Johannesburg
Attendance: 60,592
Referee: Matthew Carley (England)
Man of the match: Will Jordan (All Blacks)
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