SOUTH AFRICA 26 NEW ZEALAND 45

South Africa 26 (11)
Tries: De Preez, Fourie (2)
Cons: Pretorius
Pens: Montgomery (2), James

New Zealand 45 (16)
Tries: Tialata, McAlister, Sivivatu, Muliaina, Gear
Cons: Carter (4)
Pens: Carter (4)

The All Blacks confirmed their status as the dominant side in the 2006 Tri-Nations with a crushing victory over South Africa in Pretoria.

A burst of three tries in the middle of the second half took the visitors away from the Springboks after the home side had taken an early lead.

Inspired kicking by Daniel Carter and the running of Jerry Collins and Mils Muliaina were key to the Kiwis' win.

Two late tries from Jaque Fourie put a gloss on the scoreline for the hosts.

Carter's performance enabled the All Blacks to fight back in a first half that the Springboks seemed set to dominate.

After both sides had traded early penalties, the home side got their noses in front when Fourie de Preez took advantage of a Kiwi error at the breakdown to scoot clear 15 metres out and cross in the corner.

The Springboks dominated the next 10 minutes, constantly disrupting the All Blacks lineout, but a succession of missed tackles allowed the visitors back in.

Carter's cute cross-kick after a Rico Gear break put Tialata over in the left corner, and his magnificent conversion put the All Blacks in front.

Gear and Toeava managed to throw away a gilt-edged chance to extend their lead, the latter dropping the ball when clear 10 metres from the try line.

But Carter then lined up a penalty from fully 62 metres, sent the ball sailing through the high veldt air and cleared the bar with ease for an extraordinary three points.

Worse was to follow for the Springboks. They came out of the traps fast at the start of the second half but were rocked back immediately by another Carter penalty before the All Blacks took the game away from them with a burst of three unanswered tries.

Akona Ndungane made a break down the left wing but kicked the ball to Muliaina, who scythed through the static home defence before feeding Luke McAlister to power through under the posts.

South Africa were then caught napping by two quickly-taken tap penalties.

First Jerry Collins took advance of the sleepy defence to put Sitiveni Sivivatu into space on the left, and the winger's pace did the rest.

McAlister then returned the favour to Muliaina after breaking clear on halfway, and the All Blacks were rampant.

The home crowd had started booing their own players with a good 25 minutes left on the clock.

There was still time for Fourie to run in two tries with smartly-timed runs to re-ignite the final ten minutes.

But more smart work from Collins snuffed out the Springbok flame with three minutes to go, his clever kick ahead allowing Gear to jog home unopposed.

South Africa had not lost at home to the Kiwis since their 52-16 defeat in 2003.

South Africa:
Montgomery, Ndungane, Fourie, de Villiers, Habana; James, du Preez; du Randt, Smit (captain), van der Linde, Muller, Matfield, Tyibilika, Cronje.
Replacements: Olivier, Pretorius, Pienaar, van den Berg, Ralepelle, Botha, Spies.

New Zealand:
MacDonald; Gear, Muliaina, McAlister, Sivivatu, Carter, Weepu; Tialata, Oliver, Somerville; Rawlinson, Williams, Thorne, McCaw (capt), Masoe.
Replacements: Mealamu, Woodcock, Jack, Collins, Cowan, Tuitupou, Toeava.

TRI NATIONS TABLE:

Team P PD PTS
1 New Zealand 5 68 22
2 Australia 5 20 11
3 South Africa 4 -88 1