The Springboks produced their most dominant performance of the series to beat the All Blacks 29-24 at FNB Stadium in front of 85,967 fans, taking a 2-1 lead into the final Test in Baltimore. Captain Ardie Savea scored two first-half tries but was forced off with a shoulder injury that will rule him out of the series finale, leaving the All Blacks facing the prospect of saving the tour without their talisman.
Key moments
10 mins – YELLOW CARD SOUTH AFRICA: Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu sin-binned for impeding an Ardie Savea pass to Peter Lakai out wide. The All Blacks have an immediate numerical advantage.
11 mins – TRY ALL BLACKS: Ardie Savea picks up from the base of a ruck after Asafo Aumua charges around the back of a lineout and carries close to the line. Savea’s 34th Test try. Love’s conversion misses. (South Africa 0–5 All Blacks)
15 mins – Cheslin Kolbe forced off for HIA. The Springboks’ primary goal-kicker departs early. Later confirmed as a broken jaw — Kolbe will miss the Baltimore finale.
21 mins – TRY SOUTH AFRICA: Kurt-Lee Arendse finishes in the corner after Damian de Allende beats Leroy Carter’s tackle and offloads wide. Feinberg-Mngomezulu converts on his return from the sin bin. (South Africa 7–5 All Blacks)
26 mins – TRY ALL BLACKS: Ardie Savea scores his second. Sam Darry breaks into the Springbok 22 and the ball is worked wide through Carter. When Feinberg-Mngomezulu attempts to sweep the ball back, Savea pounces in support to score. Love converts. (South Africa 7–12 All Blacks)
30 mins – Savea leaves the field with a shoulder injury after taking Malcolm Marx’s head to the shoulder at a breakdown. Wallace Sititi replaces him. A devastating blow for the All Blacks. Rennie later confirmed Savea will not travel to Baltimore.
37 mins – YELLOW CARD ALL BLACKS: Ruben Love sin-binned for a cynical defensive action after Manie Libbok’s outstanding counter-attack run takes the Springboks deep into the 22. All Blacks down to 14 men.
38 mins – PENALTY TRY SOUTH AFRICA: The Springbok scrum demolishes the All Blacks from 5m out. Referee Nika Amashukeli awards the penalty try. A statement of intent from the Bok pack. (South Africa 12–12 All Blacks)
Half-time: South Africa 12–12 All Blacks. An extraordinary first half. Savea scored twice but departed injured. Both sides had a man yellow-carded. The Springbok scrum was dominant, earning a penalty try on the stroke of half-time. Kolbe lost to a broken jaw. The series hangs in the balance.
43 mins – Quinn Tupaea leaves the field. The All Blacks lose their starting outside centre early in the second half. Anton Lienert-Brown replaces him.
56 mins – TRY ALL BLACKS: Will Jordan puts a kick behind the Springbok defence from a wide position. Leroy Carter chases through to secure the ball and, while being tackled, lobs it up for the supporting Jordan to take the pass and score. McKenzie converts. (South Africa 12–17 All Blacks)
58 mins – TRY SOUTH AFRICA: Jesse Kriel crosses after the Springboks capitalise on a Jordan kick from deep that goes dead. From the scrum, they move the ball wide where Kriel beats Carter’s tackle and runs 25m to score. Feinberg-Mngomezulu converts. (South Africa 19–17 All Blacks)
65 mins – TRY SOUTH AFRICA: Malcolm Marx powers over from a devastating lineout maul after the Springboks win a scrum penalty. The rolling drive splits the All Blacks’ pack apart. Feinberg-Mngomezulu’s conversion misses. (South Africa 24–17 All Blacks)
72 mins – PENALTY SOUTH AFRICA: Feinberg-Mngomezulu lands a 45-metre penalty into the wind. A nerveless kick that stretches the lead to 12 points. (South Africa 29–17 All Blacks)
80+2 mins – TRY ALL BLACKS: Samisoni Taukei’aho crosses from a tap penalty move after the final hooter. McKenzie converts. Too little, too late. (South Africa 29–24 All Blacks)
Full-time: South Africa 29–24 All Blacks. Series: South Africa 2–1.
The dream of matching the 1996 Incomparables died in Soweto. Thirty years on from Sean Fitzpatrick’s squad claiming the All Blacks’ first series victory in South Africa, Dave Rennie’s men came within touching distance of replicating the feat before the Springboks’ relentless power play overwhelmed them in a decisive 20-minute stretch of the second half that swung the series irrevocably in the world champions’ favour.
The match was brutal, absorbing and at times magnificent, played out before a thunderous 85,967 crowd — the largest of the tour — at the iconic calabash-shaped stadium in Soweto. It was won in the same place it has been won all series: at the set piece, at the breakdown, and in the unforgiving collision area where the Springboks’ bench-driven power has proved time and again to be the difference between these two sides.
The pivotal sequence came between the 56th and 72nd minutes. The All Blacks, having broken a 12-12 deadlock through a sublime Will Jordan try to lead 17-12, conceded two tries and a penalty in the space of 16 minutes as the Springboks pounced on errors with ruthless efficiency. A long kick from Jordan that sailed dead handed the hosts a scrum, from which they manufactured a penalty and then unleashed the rolling maul that deposited hooker Malcolm Marx over the line. By the time Feinberg-Mngomezulu drilled his 45-metre penalty into the wind with ten minutes remaining, the All Blacks were 29-17 down and the series was slipping from their grasp.
“The two tries we scored in the second half were special,” Rennie said. “Then straight from the kick-off and a ruck penalty we find ourselves defending, and then we kick the ball dead, and on the back of that scrum they get a penalty. Their rolling maul was outstanding. Two opportunities that we gave them and they capitalised.”
The loss of Savea cast a long shadow over the contest. The 32-year-old captain scored two first-half tries of the highest quality, the first when he pounced at the base of a ruck after Aumua had carried to within inches of the line, the second when he anticipated Feinberg-Mngomezulu’s attempted clearance and intercepted in support of Carter on the left flank. At 12-7, with the Springboks’ fly-half already sin-binned and Kolbe departed with what was later confirmed as a broken jaw, the All Blacks held all the aces.
Then, in the 30th minute, Savea was hurt at a breakdown when Marx’s head collided with his shoulder. The captain tried briefly to play on before leaving the field, and in that moment the balance of power shifted. Wallace Sititi replaced him and competed bravely, but Savea’s combination of experience, leadership and physical menace at the breakdown is irreplaceable. Rennie confirmed afterwards that Savea will not travel to Baltimore for the series finale.
“Ardie is obviously a huge loss,” Rennie said. “He won’t make the trip to Baltimore. It’s a shoulder injury. We’re not sure of the extent yet but we know it’ll be weeks. The boys will be gutted but we’ve got guys who can step up.”
The Springboks’ first-half penalty try, earned from a devastating 5m scrum while Love was in the sin bin after Libbok’s electrifying counter-attack had taken the hosts deep into the 22, levelled the scores at 12-12 at the break. It was a passage that distilled the entire series: New Zealand’s individual brilliance against South Africa’s collective power.
Jordan’s try early in the second half was a masterclass of rugby intelligence. Receiving the ball in a wide position, he kicked behind the defence, and Carter chased through to compete for the ball. Tackled on the ground, Carter lobbed the ball up and Jordan — who had sprinted from the opposite wing to offer support — collected and scored. McKenzie converted and the All Blacks led 17-12. For ten minutes, another famous victory beckoned.
But the Springboks’ response was instant and devastating. From the restart, wing Ethan Hooker contested and the hosts won a ruck penalty that allowed them to build pressure. When the ball was moved wide, Kriel beat Carter’s tackle — the winger’s second missed tackle in the midfield channel in the series — and ran 25 metres to score. Two minutes into injury, the lead was the Springboks’ again at 19-17.
Marx’s try from the rolling maul seven minutes later was the coup de grâce. The Springboks’ lineout drive, reinforced by the replacements who had entered the contest, split the All Blacks’ pack apart and the hooker was driven over under the posts. Feinberg-Mngomezulu missed the conversion but landed the long-range penalty that followed, and at 29-17 the All Blacks were out of time.
Replacement hooker Taukei’aho scored from a tap penalty after the final hooter to cut the deficit to five, but it was a consolation that could not disguise the truth: the Springboks had been the better side when it mattered most.
Erasmus, who had drawn headlines all week for his explosive F-bomb press conference in Cape Town, was magnanimous in victory. “I thought it was epic,” the Springboks coach said. “The whole series so far has been epic, and they can draw it in Baltimore. I want to apologise — it wasn’t a well-mannered outburst last weekend. Dave is a gentleman and he coaches in a very brutal way. I have huge respect for what he’s done with this All Blacks team.”
Luke Jacobson, who will likely captain the All Blacks in Baltimore in Savea’s absence, reflected on the challenge ahead. “It’s not over. We’ve still got a chance to draw this series and that’s what we’ll be fighting for,” the flanker said. “It’s been an incredible tour and we owe it to ourselves and our supporters to finish it the right way.”
The physical toll was immense on both sides. Beyond Savea’s tour-ending shoulder injury, the All Blacks lost Quinn Tupaea early in the second half. For the Springboks, Kolbe’s broken jaw rules him out of Baltimore, though Damian Willemse will be available after missing the third Test through injury. The try count across the three Tests reads 14-8 in the All Blacks’ favour, yet the Springboks lead the series 2-1 — a testament to their ability to win the moments that matter through set-piece dominance and relentless defensive pressure.
The series now heads to M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore for the fourth and final Test next Saturday — the first time these two rivals have met on American soil. The All Blacks must win to draw the series 2-2, in which case each nation would retain one half of the Greatest Rivalry trophy. Defeat would hand the Springboks both halves and confirm the first series loss for an All Blacks touring side in South Africa since 1976.
Without Savea, on foreign soil at the end of a gruelling seven-week tour, the odds are stacked against them. But as this extraordinary series has shown, nothing is decided until the final whistle.
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 Cobus Reinach, 8 Jasper Wiese, 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 6 Siya Kolisi (c), 5 Ruan Nortje, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Wilco Louw, 2 Deon Fourie, 1 Ox Nche.
Replacements: 16 Malcolm Marx, 17 Gerhard Steenekamp, 18 Thomas du Toit, 19 Lood de Jager, 20 Marco van Staden, 21 Andre Esterhuizen, 22 Morne van den Berg, 23 Manie Libbok.
All Blacks: 15 Damian McKenzie, 14 Will Jordan, 13 Quinn Tupaea, 12 Jordie Barrett, 11 Leroy Carter, 10 Ruben Love, 9 Cam Roigard, 8 Ardie Savea (c), 7 Luke Jacobson, 6 Peter Lakai, 5 Sam Darry, 4 Tupou Vaa’i, 3 Tyrel Lomax, 2 Asafo Aumua, 1 George Bower.
Replacements: 16 Samisoni Taukei’aho, 17 Xavier Numia, 18 Fletcher Newell, 19 Fabian Holland, 20 Wallace Sititi, 21 Kyle Preston, 22 Anton Lienert-Brown, 23 Josh Moorby.
Match details
South Africa 29 (Tries: Arendse, penalty try, Kriel, Marx; Conversions: Feinberg-Mngomezulu 2/3; Penalties: Feinberg-Mngomezulu 1/1)
All Blacks 24 (Tries: Savea 2, Jordan, Taukei’aho; Conversions: Love 1/2, McKenzie 1/2)
Half-time: 12–12
Venue: FNB Stadium, Johannesburg (Soweto)
Attendance: 85,967
Referee: Nika Amashukeli (Georgia)
Yellow cards: Feinberg-Mngomezulu (SA, 10 mins), Love (NZ, 37 mins)
Series: South Africa 2–1
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