Springboks vanish under All Black spell

By TIM GLOVER

NEW ZEALAND 29 SOUTH AFRICA 9

By the end, he was doing card tricks and conjuring rabbits out of hats. Carlos Spencer produced spells of magic to make South Africa disappear from the World Cup yesterday.

Whereas New Zealand possessed something of a wizard in Spencer, South Africa gambled heavily on Derick Hougaard and lost.

Rudi Straeuli, the coach, dropped his number one stand-off Louis Koen after the defeat in the pool stages to England in Perth, an understandable reaction under the circumstances, but it was asking a lot of the 20-year-old Hougaard to come up with something to match Spencer in a World Cup quarter final. He couldn't and nor could any of his team-mates.

Spencer put on a show but the most surprising aspect of the match was the reappearance of the All Blacks forwards following their lightweight display against Wales during which the team conceded four tries.

"Many people have underestimated the ability of our pack," John Mitchell, the coach, said. "They were superb. It was certainly a step up from the pool matches."

A big advance against the big rugby nation that is in transition, the All Blacks eased into the semi-finals, scoring three tries to nil, where they will meet Australia and, unless I am very much mistaken, it is the Wallabies who will be losing sleep.

"We are living a dream at the moment," Leon MacDonald, the centre, said. "The forwards were awesome and there's a feeling of elation. It was a huge effort from the team. We'll take time out before we build up to Aus... before we build up to the next game."

MacDonald corrected himself because, with the New Zealand and South Africa match starting earlier than Australia-Scotland, the latter had barely kicked off.

The Springboks forwards caused England a lot of problems a few weeks ago, far more than they did the All Blacks, who yesterday controlled possession, controlled the game and allowed Spencer to display a few of his party tricks.

However, he wasn't the only player to catch the eye in what was easily the All Blacks most impressive showing yet. Richie McCaw and Jerry Collins were outstanding - there was even the odd sighting of the captain Reuben Thorne - as was the hooker Keven Mealamu.

It was Mealamu's try in the 58th minute, when the Springboks were hanging on at 16-9, that effectively put New Zealand into the last four.

"He's an outstanding all-round footballer," Mitchell said of the number two. "He has skills other hookers don't have."

Like Steve Thompson, Mealamu is a converted back-row forward.

Corne Krige, the Springboks captain, acknowledged the superiority of the New Zealand eight.

"The fact of the matter is we couldn't get the ball for long periods. They kept working it through phases and pout us under massive pressure. When you defend for so long, in the end, the wall will break."

New Zealand had 65 per cent of possession, 63 per cent of territory and even when they weren't winning the ball, they could usually rely on South Africa, whose handling was awful, to turn it over.

Spencer broke brilliantly in the 16th minute, capitalising on an unorthodox seed from Justin Marshall, and left the South African midfield in his wake before slipping an inside scoring pass to MacDonald.

The stand-off, who missed the last World Cup with an injury before playing a game, had a parting shot when, with his back to Joe Rokocoko, he passed the ball swiftly and extremely accurately between his legs, sending the wing over in the left-hand corner. And to think, Spencer was due to join Leicester. Would Welford Road have been big enough for him and Austin Healy?

The crowd, of course, loved it but with the attendance at 40,000, it was well down on what was anticipated. The only tickets available were priced at US$295 and US$195, which smacks of greed, and the people of Melbourne had already invested heavily in the city's spring racing festival.

It was a flat ending to the Springboks' campaign, which represents their earliest exit from a tournament they won in 1995, and for their scrum-half Joost van der Westhuizen, their most capped player and the first to appear in three World Cups. He is joining a TV station.

"This was not about the sadness for the end of my career," he said. "But the sadness for losing the match." At the end, he and Marshall bid a found farewell.

Straeuli, who once played for Penarth and coached Bedford, said: "We came here to win the cup but maybe it was a year too soon. There was a true spirit in the Springboks side but as a team and as a nation, we are deeply disappointed. We had a beer in the changing room with the All Blacks and told them we'll be back."

Whether Straeuli, who succeeded Harry Viljoen in March of last year, will be back is another matter. The Springboks' usual reaction to failure is to show the coach a red card. South Africa couldn't score a try against either England or New Zealand and yesterday they badly missed their brilliant open-side flanker Joe van Niekerk.

South Africa probably did not help their cause by not giving the haka the respect the All Blacks thinks it deserves. Instead of listening in silence while the war dance was performed, the Springboks sang the republic's national anthem.

"It was a team idea," van der Westhuizen said.

The last word went to Theinus Delport, the wing who plays for Gloucester. He was hit by a Collins tackle in the first half and didn't reappear for the second.

"It felt like," Delport said, "that I had run into a brick shit house." Indeed.

- INDEPENDENT

Full World Cup coverage