Boks scrape in to give NZ win

By WYNNE GRAY

Early wobbles from the Springboks did not look promising.

But they came right in the end, when fullback Werner Greef scored and converted his injury time try to give the Springboks a gritty 33-31 victory against Australia.

It gave the Boks their first win of the series, and made the All Blacks Tri-Nations champions for the fourth time.

That status was almost settled by halftime. After Brent Russell and Greef missed penalties primary kids should have been able to kick, the Boks scored twice to take the halftime lead.

The Wallabies needed to win by 26 points and score four tries if they were to deny the All Blacks the Tri-Nations title.

After 60 minutes the Springboks had the four tries, and the Wallabies had only three goals from Matthew Burke.

They rallied and increased the final quarter tempo as de Wet Barry was sinbinned for punching, then centre Marius Joubert was sent off for a high tackle.

The dismissal seemed severe. O'Brien claimed it was his second caution to the same player but it looked a case of mistaken identity after earlier admonitions for Greef and Barry.

It was not the same powderkeg ruling with which David McHugh incensed the Durban crowd.

But it did begin to look significant as the Wallabies recovered.

When replacement hooker Brandan Cannon scored late to give the Wallabies the lead, skipper George Gregan baited the Ellis Park crowd.

His victorious salute was premature, his reward a shower of bottles.

"What happened was absolutely disgraceful," Wallaby coach Eddie Jones said.

"The Ellis Park authorities have to have a good look at themselves in how they allow bottled beer into a ground when obviously the crowd cannot behave themselves."

Jones made no mention of Gregan's provocative behaviour.

His reaction completed a week of bickering between the Wallaby and Springbok camps about crowd reactions, refereeing standards, Ben Tune's positive drug test, the violence from their first meeting in Brisbane and their mutual lack of respect.

Jones had predicted crowd violence.

"You have to be concerned about playing at Ellis Park, because they've got a history of being pretty active in throwing missiles on the field," he said.

"We are expecting the worst environment."

Gregan did not help, but minutes later it was the Boks who produced pandemonium celebrations when Greef scored.

Later on the dais, New Zealand had a chance to congratulate themselves and thank the Boks as NZRFU chief executive Steve Tew accepted the silverware.

Recriminations from the test continued.

Springbok captain Corne Krige was cited for punching, and midfielder Barry said he retaliated with a punch because Wallaby fullback Chris Latham bit him.

"My arm was in his mouth and it felt like a bite," he said.

The accusation stunned Latham.

"That's not true," he said, "I grabbed his fingers and pulled them away from the ball. If he wants to justify a cheap shot that's fine, but it's not true."

The lone Springbok victory in the series came after a final training session drama when first five eighths Andre Pretorious injured his knee.

His place was taken by Brent Russell, the jinking runner who has been a lethal counter-attacking substitute for the Boks but was deemed too small to start.

His deft footwork was a catalyst for the Springbok forays in which Breyton Paulse scored twice, Russell pinballed his way out of tackles for another and Joe van Niekerk capped a superb round the corner pass from Bobby Skinstad.