South Africa: All Blacks Wiped Out By Rampant Boks

➤ With minutes to go:

All the talk is about Canan Moodie and Manie Libbok. A delectable prospect: How will Moodie manage the rampant, powerful All Blacks players in the centre field? But the biggest question is the performance of Manie Libbok. Will he handle the pressure? We’ll find out.

The last-minute replacement of Willie le Roux with Kwagga Smith means the Boks have seven forwards on the bench and only one back. Is it a gamble worth taking?

➤ The match:

Referee Matthew Carley blows the whistle, fullback Beauden Barrett kicks off and one of the most important matches of the year is underway.

The first two minutes belong to South Africa. The Boks get two penalties, they get very close to scoring two forward tries and Mapimpi on the wing gets within inches of getting the ball down in the corner and New Zealand has not been in the game.

After seven minutes Black flyhalf Richie Mo’unga goes for the high kick, but the ball ends up in Springbok’s hands and once again the Boks are right on the tryline.

Has South Africa dominated? Totally. Have they scored any points? No. The All Blacks will take heart from that.

The yellow card waved at Sam Whitelock is a penalty against the team for repeated infringements – but then Tyrel Lomax suffers an injury that ends his match and probably his World Cup campaign.

Sam Cane’s yellow card means the All Blacks will play another eight minutes with only 13 players. Another yellow flag controversy is brewing.

It takes a full 18 minutes before the try comes, but it’s a good one. Captain Siya Kolisi twists on the ground to get the ball down. South Africa led by seven golden points.

Richie Mo’ungs misses probably the easiest penalty of his career and the All Blacks are still without points.

After 26 minutes the Boks have one everything except score and there is a definite swing in favour of the All Blacks.

Then, just as the All Blacks look as if they are going to break out, they once again give away an intercept and Kurt-Lee Arendse trots over under the posts. The lead is 14 points.

Three minutes before halftime, Scott Barrett gets a second yellow card, which is equal to a red card. New Zealand will play a full half of the match with 14 players.

Whatever Nienaber said in the locker room at halftime, it worked! From the first lineout of the second half, Malcolm Marx cruises over the line for the try – and Libbok scores a beauty of a conversion. The Boks lead by three converted tries to nil.

And a minute later, comes the best try Moodie has ever scored – but it is disallowed. Sadly, the call of offside is correct.

Pieter-Steph du Toit’s yellow card for a dangerous tackle gets referred. Minutes later, the relief on his face is clear when the decision comes – the card is not upgraded.

The fourth try is a classic forward power try. Bongi Mbonambi gets up with the ball, but it could have been any of those magnificent Bok forwards.

Perhaps the smartest try of the match comes from a lineout, when the All Blacks forward all-pack to try and stop the maul, the ball goes to Kwagga Smith who runs into the huge resulting gap to score.

The All Blacks must be desperate for a try and they get it when Cam Roigard runs 90 metres, beats three Springboks and scores a beauty.

A dominant victory for the Springboks with all the initiative coming from the Boks and almost nothing from the All Blacks.

And to sweeten the deal, Canan Moodie and Manie Libbok have delivered – and in grand style.

South Africa (5 tries) 35-7 (1 try) New Zealand