Rugby videos of tackles, tries, funny incidents and more: All Blacks beat Springboks in Tri Nations opener

Saturday, July 05, 2008

All Blacks beat Springboks in Tri Nations opener

It was an intense night in Wellington as the All Blacks put an end to the Springboks’ 14 match winning streak as they triumphed 19-8 in the Tri Nations opener at a wet and windy Westpac Stadium.

The weather made it hard but not as hard as two physical, determined teams slamming into each other for 80 mins - and then ending with smiles, handshakes and hugs, like heavyweight boxers at the end of a massive bout.

This was a massive bout, a massive scrap and one which the All Blacks deserved to win, especially for their second-half effort - their effort and Dan Carter's skill.

Certainly Carter outkicked all Springboks attempts at kicking. His kicking is so varied - at goal, high, diagonally, chipping, grubbering through. What ever kick is needed he can produce it to perfection.

Both the tries in the match were splendid, worthy of the finest weather on the firmest fields.

Jean De Villiers’ break down the left wing and perfectly timed pass to supreme finisher Bryan Habana oozed class, both players arguably the hardest working backline Boks on the night.

The All Blacks scored their try early in the second half, with that man Carter once again proving the Boks’ nemesis as he doubled around beautifully to set up a superbly taken try for Jerome Kaino. The number 8 was unlucky not to have a second try later on as he was adjudged to be ahead of the kicker by referee Stuart Dickonson, when television replays clearly showed that he wasn’t.

Perhaps the abiding memory of the game was its physicality - the sheer intensity of tackle after tackle, collision after collision. It was worthy of the 87 years of battles between the two top nations in the world of rugby, and they'll do battle again next week.

Time: 05:05
With thanks to rugby365

in my opinion the bok should have taken butch out alot sooner than they did..you could see when steyn came on the difference he made.
Really good game to watch though

By Anonymous, at July 05, 2008 10:18 pm
oh and it really pissed me off when thorn dumped john smit.Glad to see the boks reaction to it

By Anonymous, at July 05, 2008 10:22 pm
i missed tha match ! ! ! !
i live in the UK in woke up @ 7:30 2 watch it n slept through it all, so pissed off
thank u RD
btw th sivivatu hit looks rather nioce

By Anonymous, at July 05, 2008 11:30 pm
butch james was destroying carter all match, but he couldnt touch carters boot. he really was deciding were the ball went!

after habanas try, wtf did he say???

By Anonymous, at July 05, 2008 11:39 pm
haha i loved brad thorn dumping smit. for anyone who didn't see it, both players were on the ground and smit was trying to give thorn some aggro. smit had him in a head-lock then he pushed his head into the ground. brad got up and showed everyone that smit isn't nearly as hard as he, or most of south africa think he is by picking him up and chucking him down like a little rag doll.
awesome.

should have been a yellow for thorn though..

By Anonymous, at July 05, 2008 11:53 pm
I think Thorn is a disgrace to NZ rugby, so go f**k yourself.

By Anonymous, at July 06, 2008 12:23 am
Felix, nothing hard about picking up a guy who's just standing there and dumping him. Doesn't make Thorn harder or Smit less hard. The little push on the back of Thorn's head, if he loses his rag over that then that's poor.
Anyway, terrible reffing to let him get away with it.

Cracking match though. You juts don't get more physical and intense than All Black vs Springbok games. Well done to AB's against all the odds, including missing Sir Richie.

By Anonymous, at July 06, 2008 12:33 am
Thorn should of got a yellow card at least for that spear tackle it was somewhat provoked by Smit but nothing warrants a spear tackle.

Yeah I was wondering what Habana said after his try I think it was something like 'click click click click'

By Anonymous, at July 06, 2008 12:34 am
*just

Habana was saying well done to Ricky, Jean etc, in english! lol

By Anonymous, at July 06, 2008 12:35 am
yeah nice one 'anonymous'.

anyway, that childish response aside, i thought i might get some grief for my comment. it wasn't a spear tackle as such though, he didn't drive his head into the ground, just slapped him down on his back. dump rather than spear.
also, it wasn't just a little head push from smit there was more to it than that and we don't know what was said.
anyway thorn will probably be banned for the rest of the tri-nations now but i still say it was worth it to put smit in his place.

By Anonymous, at July 06, 2008 12:46 am
only in rugby can people be so respectful to each other after they have gaven it their all on the pitch

By Anonymous, at July 06, 2008 12:55 am
Any one notice the time at the start?

By Anonymous, at July 06, 2008 2:53 am
haha yea it was like 209 minutes

By Anonymous, at July 06, 2008 3:47 am
f**k u felix, have u seen thorn lift the webb ellis?, NO! but john has(legend)

rwc champs deal with it

By Anonymous, at July 06, 2008 7:31 am
Good Match the intensity of this match was much greater than the aus france game.

By Anonymous, at July 06, 2008 8:19 am
No matter how provoked he was, I reckon Thorne dodged a bullet for what he did.

I was damned nervous that we maybe down by one man for a good portion of the 1st half because I thought he'd be yellow carded for sure.

By Anonymous, at July 06, 2008 8:50 am
Lol..thorne got a one week suspension...silly stuff there

just remembered he cost the crusaders a try in the S14 final.

And i'm tired of the "SA are world champs" argument...this is the tri nations people.

By Anonymous, at July 06, 2008 8:59 am
by the way did any one notice the crappy refs in both games, like carters kick for the number 8 he was completely on side

By Anonymous, at July 06, 2008 9:08 am
the offside in the nz v sa game was called by the touch judge/assisstant ref...wasn't the ref's who called it

second game...the slow pace made it quite boring

By Anonymous, at July 06, 2008 9:12 am
I think Habana is over rated, he barely sets up his own tries, he can't tackle, can't pass, infact all he can do is run in a straight line.

By Anonymous, at July 06, 2008 10:50 am
World champions? Yet we still beat you without Richie Mccaw and about 10 other All Blacks from the Rugby World Cup 2007 campaign.

By Anonymous, at July 06, 2008 10:51 am
Now thats what you call RUGBY!!!!

By Anonymous, at July 06, 2008 11:06 am
world champions: youre havng a laugh! nice crack at the new zealand a team though boys.

By Anonymous, at July 06, 2008 12:11 pm
haha yeah i've seen smit lift the web ellis but i've also seen stuart abbott, dan luger and ian balshaw lift so it doesn't mean you have to be any good. also i didn't see him lift a lot on saturday except the white flag!

whoever thinks habana can't tackle does need their head examining. also he might be a bit one dimensional on attack but it's one heck of a dimension. 31 tries in 39 games. not as good at rokocoko but not bad.

By Anonymous, at July 06, 2008 12:27 pm
the atmosphere at the end of the game looks great.

By alasdair, at July 06, 2008 12:38 pm
Wot was the ref ding asking for the video for Habanna's try? Is every try going to be refered? Why didn't the touch judge give a try. Are the refs not goin to have the balls to touch their instincts anymore?

By Anonymous, at July 06, 2008 1:08 pm
The All Blacks needed this win to erase their World Cup failure. I still think the Springboks had their A team on the field and weren't the full kettle of fish.

By Anonymous, at July 06, 2008 1:28 pm
i don't believe it was a spear tackle, as smit landed on his back nowhere near his head! and isnt smit looking a little chunky? he was far more svelte at the wc, maybe it's still celebratory hangover???
anyway kaino is an athlete, a guy with a real future!

By Anonymous, at July 06, 2008 1:40 pm
You think the ref asking the TMO for advice on the Habana try was shocking?!?
Should have watched the Blue Bulls vs Sharks game in the Currie Cup in the afternoon - game ended on 101 minutes because of below par ref and even worse calls by the the TMO.
Still a bloody brilliant game for the Bulls to win!!!
Hey RD, how about some Currie Cup action?

By Anonymous, at July 06, 2008 1:52 pm
Besides the fact that thorns tackle was stupid, did any1 see Steyn's drop goal attempt?? At first i thought he was a maniac but... what a freak, he almost succeeds!!

By Anonymous, at July 06, 2008 5:14 pm
its funny that after such an awsome game most of you are stuck on one incident (thorn chuckin smit down) get over it..south africa lost to a better team on the day. brad thorn isnt even that good..ban him for as long as they want somone else will be in there doing the damage next week. bring on the next game. expect the boks to come back 3 times harder. cant wait.

-shawzy13

By Anonymous, at July 07, 2008 2:09 am
er anthony boric is a decent player but i can't see him making the same physical impression thorn makes. Brad is quality by the way. superb player. he's made more tackles than anyone else for the all blacks in the last two test matches, he's a great ball carrier. can link play too as seen in the kaino try and he's a solid line-out option. i'd have him in a world squad, with simon shaw and a load of wallaby locks - they're all good.

By Anonymous, at July 07, 2008 2:25 am
felx:
Aren't you forgetting Matfield/Botha? Best 2ndrow combo atm, although didn't fire last night.
NZ looked like they 'did an England' on South Africa (by England i mean the legend one which won the World Cup, not the yoyo joke that is the current team). By that i mean they led the match and turned the screw by keeping territory down SA's end and kicking goals. Good to see no.8 Kaino score a try which wasnt just a pushover from the base of a scrum, gives blokes like me hope :)

By Anonymous, at July 07, 2008 11:18 am
The citing commision decided it was a red card offence, so a shocking decision not to even give him a yellow. Boks vs 14 AB's would have been a very different game!

Most physical game ever!

Bring on the dry weather for the next one!!

By Tim Hulme, at July 07, 2008 11:54 am
Curry cup on rubgy dump ftw!!

By Tim Hulme, at July 07, 2008 11:56 am
Bakkies botha would be my brad thorn replacement. he is to brad thorn what joe jackson is to elvis costello. kind of like a poor mans version.

matfield is a god player but he's a notch below simon shaw in terms of all round skills. Shaw is basically the best 2nd row of the last 10 years. john eales is the only guy in the modern era who gets close.

By Anonymous, at July 07, 2008 8:29 pm
NZ only won that game becuase of illegal scrumming. NZ used the new rules agianst SA. I will call them the real losers at the end. NZ is so afriad of SA's backline they would slow the game down as far as possible.

By Anonymous, at July 08, 2008 11:23 am
pfft, i'd rather have the nz backline than the SA one. nothing to be afraid of really without chavanga, even then i'd rather have rokocoko. carter is better than james, nonu is better than de villiers, smith and kahuio are both better than jacobs. everyone is better than ndungane (including me). i might pick habana but wulf and sivivatu would be good competition. actually no i'd have tuitavake instead.

By Anonymous, at July 08, 2008 1:00 pm
take note northern hemisphere peeps!!! Welcome to the real action of Southern Hemisphere rugby...BLOODY BRILLIANT!!

By Anonymous, at July 08, 2008 1:58 pm
Felix, you are a muppet and u dont really know what u r talking about. Well played to NZ.

By Anonymous, at July 09, 2008 2:30 pm
i'm not a muppet and i do know what i'm talkingt about.

By Anonymous, at July 09, 2008 2:54 pm
felix, what have you been smoking? nonu better than JDV?? no way

By Anonymous, at July 10, 2008 12:05 pm
felix just shut ur big mouth.u've sed wat u wanted to say many times so fuckin leave other people have their fuckin opinion.ur being biased toward ur country all the time so stop sayin sa r shit coz they're fuckin awsum.and i'm welsh

and wat have u got against smit.great captain of at the moment the greatest team statistically.ur just obsessed with slagging off other countries and sayin they have shit players.they dont!u dont have to prove nz r great by slagging off countries.in fact u dont have to prove nz r great coz we fuckin know!

anyway i'd be harsh on thorn and give a red.rugby players should take out their anger in tackling like sivivatu.liked habanas try

By Anonymous, at July 10, 2008 4:32 pm
world champions: YES WE ARE, WE WON THE SECOND MATCH AGAINST NZ AND ARE THE ONLY TEAM TO WIN AN AWAY MATCH SO FAR!!BOKKE!! WE HAVE THE HARDEST AWAY TOUR OUT OF ALL THREE TEAMS!! WE HAVE WON HALF THE WORLD CUPS WE VE BEEN IN AND PROBABLY WOULDVE WON IN '87, '91!!! BOKKKKKKKE!!!!!

By Anonymous, at August 04, 2008 12:08 pm