Bangkok Post

All Blacks thrash Boks by record 57-0

Winger Milner-Skudder gets two as world champions destroy South Africa by record 57-0

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>> AUCKLAND: 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 yesterday.

The eight-try victory surpassed the All Blacks previous best 57-15 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 94-Test 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 world champions 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.

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 ??  ?? New Zealand’s Nehe Milner-Skudder scores a try against South Africa.
New Zealand’s Nehe Milner-Skudder scores a try against South Africa.

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