The Springboks delivered a statement-win in Wellington on Saturday, defeating the All Blacks 43\u201310 in what\u2019s officially New Zealand\u2019s heaviest loss ever. It was a dominant showing that saw South Africa defend their Freedom Cup for the first time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite going into the break trailing 10\u20137, the Boks came out firing in the second half. They scored five tries to New Zealand\u2019s one, turning the match on its head and securing a bonus-point victory. That turnaround was made possible by superior execution, clinical finishing and a defensive toughness that stifled the All Blacks when it counted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Damian Willemse was particularly impressive: one try, 14 carries, breaking through six defenders and covering 115 metres. He delivered when it mattered. Beyond individual performances though, it was clear the team had bought into the plan \u2014 errors that hurt them in Auckland and early in Wellington were cleaned up, and they looked more composed in the Red Zone especially. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the competition front, this win lifts the Springboks from third to second in The Rugby Championship, giving them strong momentum in their campaign. It also means the All Blacks drop to third. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Springboks delivered a statement-win in Wellington on Saturday, defeating the All Blacks 43\u201310 in what\u2019s officially New Zealand\u2019s heaviest loss ever. It was a dominant showing that saw South Africa defend their Freedom Cup for the first time. Despite going into the break trailing 10\u20137, the Boks came out firing in the second half. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11259,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_25071586472533619_109551237394069":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[602],"tags":[354],"class_list":["post-11258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-newsroom","tag-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricansun.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricansun.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricansun.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricansun.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricansun.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11258"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/southafricansun.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11258\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11260,"href":"https:\/\/southafricansun.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11258\/revisions\/11260"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricansun.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricansun.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricansun.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricansun.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}