All Blacks outdo South Africa at Eden Park

By NICK STANLEY

The All Blacks have bounced back from the loss to Australia in Dunedin two weeks ago, beating the Springboks 26-15 at Eden Park.

Despite the wet conditions New Zealand played enterprising rugby, scoring two tries and defending tenaciously - as they had in Cape Town in the opening Tri-Nations match - to keep South Africa from crossing their goal line.

The win moves New Zealand to the top of the Tri-Nations table, with two wins from three games, and sets up a thrilling finale against the Wallabies in Sydney next weekend.

In a similar opening to the Bledisloe Cup game at Carisbrook, the All Blacks came out firing to score an early try.

After two bursts of sustained attack, with strong work from Tana Umaga, newly appointed flanker Troy Flavell and dynamic halfback Byron Kelleher, Pita Alatini got the ball close to the line and wrestled free to score.

Andrew Mehrtens, who made a fine return in the No. 10 jersey after weeks on the bench, made no mistake with the conversion to give the All Blacks a 7-0 lead.

It took the Sprinboks 15 minutes to reply with Springbok second five-eights Braam van Straaten making Ron Cribb pay for a tackling the man without the ball.

Cribb cost the All Blacks a penalty try in Dunedin for a similar offence, but van Straaten extracted only three points with the first of his five penalties.

Mehrtens and Van Straaten then traded penalties - both from offside play - to take the score to 10-6.

In the intense Eden Park atmosphere, tempers flared when the South Africans were penalised for killing the ball on the line.

Mehrtens missed the resulting penalty but kicked another – from Springbok interference - shortly after.

Lock Norm Maxwell was called for grabbing his opposite Mark Andrews in the lineout, after earlier warnings from referee Peter Marshall, and van Straaten made no mistake to close the gap to 13-9.

Mehrtens had a chance to extend the All Blacks' lead, but missed a shot at goal on the stroke of halftime.

Though the rain came down in the second half, New Zealand didn't change their game plan - moving the ball quickly from the breakdown, giving the backs room to move and hanging on to passes that could have easily gone to ground.

Mehrtens kicked a straightforward penalty to open the scoring after the break, before unleashing a 50m kick to take the All Blacks out to a ten-point lead.

Mehrtens was again the catalyst in the next movement that ended in Peter Marshall ruling a penalty try to New Zealand.

Mehrtens had run through a neat gap on the blindside and passed to Leon McDonald who was scragged from behind by Lukas van Biljon before he could cross an open line.

Mehrtens took his personal points tally to 16 with the conversion and with a 26-9 lead, New Zealand had the Tri-Nations points in the bag.

They did have to defend for much of the remaining fifteen minutes as South Africa threw everything at the All Black line in search of the win.

Van Straaten kicked two more penalties, while Mehrtens missed one of his own, but the New Zealand line held as time ticked away for the Springboks.

New Zealand 26 (P Alatini try, penalty try; A Mehrtens 2 con, 4 pen)

South Africa 15 (B van Stratten 5 pen).

Halftime: 13-9.