Rampaging All Blacks gut Springbok fans

By DANIEL GILHOOLY

PRETORIA - The All Blacks tore the heart out of South Africa's World Cup plans, not to mention their rabid supporters, with yesterday's record-breaking 52-16 triumph.

The rivalry between history's two best teams was for 80 minutes left in the dust of Loftus Versfeld by a New Zealand side playing with speed and skill above the Springboks' abilities.

The hosts' game plan, based more on passion than panache, lasted about 15 minutes as the All Blacks' finest all-round performance for some time saw them take an iron grip on the Tri-Nations tournament, after just their first game.

A challenge will be repeating the performance against Australia on Saturday in the opening Bledisloe Cup test in Sydney.

When first five-eighth Carlos Spencer crossed for the first of seven New Zealand tries, it became apparent they had weapons to cut and slice, while their opponents could only batter away. And the 52,000-strong crowd - suddenly silenced - realised it.

Their forward pack, loaded with local players, started with a series of drives and another Bulls' favourite, first five-eighth Louis Koen, put them 3-0 up with a penalty.

But the tackle-busting break from All Blacks lock Chris Jack that set up Spencer's try showed that South Africa's defence was there for the breaking.

Coach John Mitchell was almost trying not to offend shocked locals after the game, playing down the lop-sided result, but he admitted to satisfaction at the nature of the win.

"It just showed that when we do get a very good platform, we do have a lot of attacking threats. That breeds confidence within the team," he said.

"We certainly wanted to exploit certain areas. I was really pleased with the way the forward pack delivered ball today."

In a fine all-round performance, the visiting pack bounced back from their scratchy showing against France three weeks ago.

The lineout and scrum were far more efficient and the defence, led by No 8 and man of the match Jerry Collins, was relentless and brutal.

The backs revelled in the warm conditions and hard ground, with Spencer back to his playmaking best.

Wingers Doug Howlett and Joe Rokocoko both bagged two tries and second five-eighth Aaron Mauger capped his return to test rugby after nearly a year out with a 50m dash to score.

Winger Ashwin Willemse, South Africa's best player, scored their only try late in the game.

He took advantage of the sin-binning of All Blacks replacement prop Kees Meeuws, who was yellow-carded for an unnecessary elbow to the head of opposite Robbie Kempson after crossing to score.

Some consolation for Meeuws was that his eighth test try is a record for All Blacks' props, moving him ahead of Richard Loe.

A swag of other records tumbled.

* The All Blacks reached five consecutive wins against South Africa for the first time.

* It was their greatest winning margin over the Boks, the 36 points surpassing the 28-0 win in Dunedin in 1999. Only November's 53-3 loss to England at Twickenham is worse against any nation.

* Most galling for the gutted hosts is that it was the Springboks' heaviest home defeat to any opponent, swamping the 26-3 loss to Australia at Cape Town in 1992.

Captain Reuben Thorne, who produced his most prominent performance for some time, found himself standing up for the Springboks in the face of some emotional South African media.

"I don't think they were weak, it was just one of those games where things fell into place for us," Thorne said, rating the win as among his best.

"It would be right up there. Winning over here has always been tough so we're very, very pleased, as a team."

Prop Dave Hewett was more direct, saying the forwards were particularly satisfied.

"We were quite happy because the Springboks were all talk about how they were going to take it to us physically and that sort of thing," Hewett said.

"I think most of the time we met that and dished it out as well. Obviously when we get front-foot ball for the backs, you saw what they can do."

Downcast Springboks captain Corne Krige reflected on how his team had slipped since their 26-22 upset of Australia last weekend.

"We arrived at the field and didn't have the intensity of last week. You can't do that or else you get punished," Krige said.

"We started well enough but our defence wasn't good enough, we gave them two or three easy tries and we were out of it after that."

- NZPA