All Blacks thrash Boks with record 8-try hiding

Australia break through for 1st RC win over Argentina

Novice 2 winners AUCKLAND, Sept 16, (AFP): The All Blacks produced their best display of the year to trounce South Africa by a record 57-0 and take a firm grip on the Rugby Championship in Auckland on Saturday.

The eight-try victory surpassed the All Blacks previous best 5715 win in Durban last year and it was South Africa’s heaviest defeat, eclipsing their 53-3 loss to England at Twickenham in 2002.

It was only the fifth time in the 94Test history between the fierce rivals that the Springboks have been kept scoreless.

With the backline standing slightly deeper than they have in recent weeks, the All Blacks eliminated many of the handling errors that had been plaguing them.

“We came in tonight pretty clear about how we wanted to play and what we wanted to achieve and a lot of those things came off,” coach Steve Hansen said.

“We started a bit jittery. There was a lot of dropped ball or bobble ball, but once we got in to the rhythm of the game I thought we played probably as good as we’ve played for a long time.”

It was a performance that showed when the All Blacks click there is a huge gulf between the first and third ranked sides two years out from the next World Cup, and left Springbok coach Allister Coetzee distraught.

“I won’t say it was a horror movie but ...” he said, searching for words to describe his disappointment.

“We played our best rugby in those (first) 20 minutes. Ball in hand we felt on top and we dominated collisions and then one pass goes astray and you’re under the pulse.

“I’m obviously very disappointed and the players are hurting, and it’s definitely not through lack of effort. Passages of great defence, passages of great attack but we couldn’t break them. They were too good.”

The Springboks opened with a typically physical start in which they bossed the All Blacks for the first quarter hour, until in the space of four minutes the New Zealanders turned the game with back-to-back tries by Rieko Ioane and Nehe Milner Skudder.

With forwards running like backs, the All Blacks added further tries by Scott Barrett and Brodie Retallick in the countdown to half-time to turn with a 31-0 lead.

Milner-Skudder, Ofa Tu’ungafasi, Lima Sopoaga and Codie Taylor scored in the second half.

The win kept the All Blacks unbeaten after four rounds of the Rugby Championship and lifted them eight points clear of South Africa with only away matches against Argentina and the Springboks remaining.

Despite the lopsided scoreline, the opening stanza belonged to South Africa when Eben Etzebeth, Jean-Luc de Preez and Uzair Cassiem led a muscular approach.

They won penalties off the first two scrums, stole the All Blacks’ first line out and drove through holes close to the ruck.

But their dominance was hindered by a succession of handling errors and a chance to put points on the board via a penalty by the usually reliable Elton Jantjies fell short.

Instead, it was the All Blacks who scored first from a Beauden Barrett penalty, the first of eight successful shots at goal as the fly-half rediscovered the kicking radar that abandoned him last week against Argentina.

Then came the tries as the All Blacks responded with lineout steals and scrum penalties of their own.

Aaron Smith took a quick penalty on halfway and chipped the ball towards the corner with Ioane winning the race for the ball.

Milner-Skudder’s first try came from his intercept in New Zealand territory and he finished off the move after some classy interplay with Beauden Barrett to beat the cover defence.

As the All Blacks dug further into their bag of tricks, hooker Dane Coles leaped high to tap a Beauden Barrett cross kick into the arms of replacement flanker Scott Barrett who scored the third try.

Coles was on hand again to play the link man between Ioane and Retallick.

The Springboks started the second half strongly but once the initial drive wore off the All Blacks returned to their try-scoring ways, bringing up the record with Taylor’s try from a lineout drive on full-time.

Meanwhile, Australia broke through for their first victory in this year’s Rugby Championship with a 45-20 win over

New Zealand’s Kieran Read holds up the Freedom Cup following the Rugby Championship match between New Zealand and South Africa at Albany Stadium in Auckland

on Sept 16. (AFP)

Australia’s Tevita Kuridrani gets away during the Rugby Championship match between Australia and Argentina in Canberra on Sept 16.

(AFP) Argentina in Canberra on Saturday.

The Wallabies fought back from 1310 down at half-time to score five second-half tries to pull away in the final stages.

Coach Michael Cheika demanded more urgency and pace from his team in the second half and the Wallabies responded to dominate the Pumas.

Fullback Israel Folau scored a try double with other tries to Sekope Kepu, Will Genia, Nick Phipps and Jordan Uelese.

Fly-half Bernard Foley kicked six conversions and a penalty goal for 15 points.

“There was a lack of intent, lack of urgency in the first half, I’m not sure why, you’re playing in a Test match for Australia,” Cheika said.

“But they sorted themselves out in the second half and that was better rugby from us.

“You have to set the platform or you get nothing out wide and then you get some straight hard running, better defence to put pressure on the opposition and you get a better outcome.”

The Wallabies remain third on the Rugby Championship standings but can leapfrog the Springboks into second spot with a win over them in their next match in Bloemfontein.

South Africa were hammered 57-0 by the leaders New Zealand in Auckland on Saturday.

The Wallabies finally broke through in the southern hemisphere tournament after some frustrating close shaves.

Australia led 20-10 in the second half against South Africa in Perth last week, only for the Springboks to snatch a 2323 draw.

It followed a heartbreaking 35-29 defeat to the All Blacks in Dunedin last month when the Australians relinquished a 17-point lead as New Zealand snatched the winning try with two minutes left.

The Wallabies have now won 14 of their last 15 games against the Pumas and have lost only once to Argentina in 14 Tests at home.

Argentina have won only one of their seven Tests this year, the last time they finished a calendar year with a lower win rate was when they went winless from three games in 1976.

The Pumas dominated territory and possession in the first half and scored the opening try in the 23rd minute after 14 phases.

Scrum-half Martin Landajo burrowed over close to the line and Nicolas Sanchez’s conversion gave Argentina a 10-3 advantage.

But Australia hit back through Folau, who backed up slick passing between Kurtley Beale, Sean McMahon and Foley to go over for his opening try.

The Wallabies paid for their indiscipline in their own half with Sanchez putting the Pumas ahead 13-10 with a penalty goal nearing half-time.

But the half-time break gave the Wallabies time to regroup and they were a different proposition in the second half.

Front-rower Kepu scored off a pick and drive close to the Pumas try-line and Folau completed his double with his 30th Test try off a long cut-out Will Genia pass.

The Pumas were reduced to 14 men when prop Enrique Pieretto was sent to the sin bin for repeated scrum infringements leaving his team a man short for the final 10 minutes.

The Wallabies cranked it up and Genia darted over off a scrum win and his replacement Nick Phipps scored before winger Matias Moroni grabbed a consolation try for the Pumas off a kick and regather. power-packed matches that included veteran and amateur players in various categories.

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