A late penalty from Jordie Barrett secured a 19-17 win for New Zealand over South Africa and Rugby Championship glory for the All Blacks.
A tight and tense encounter in Queensland was settled when Barrett slotted through the posts with barely a minute remaining, a late error in possession from the Springboks then allowing New Zealand to hoof the ball into touch.
The 100th Test match between these teams started in positive fashion for New Zealand, Will Jordan touching down and Jordie Barrett converting after five minutes, but South Africa promptly turned the game on its head through S'busiso Nkosi's try and two Handre Pollard penalties.
Ian Foster's men, 23-13 winners over the Boks at the Rugby World Cup two years ago, found it hard to maintain any rhythm with the ball but did scrape into a half-time lead through two further Jordie Barrett kicks while Nkosi was sin-binned.
A topsy-turvy, error-strewn contest continued when Pollard and Jordie Barrett exchanged penalties in the space of three minutes, but it seemed South Africa's number 10 might have secured a surprise win to banish thoughts of back-to-back losses to Australia when he kicked them into a 17-16 lead with his fourth three-pointer 14 minutes from time.
Yet it was Jordie Barrett who had the final say, squeezing his penalty just inside the left-hand upright to extend the All Blacks' winning streak to 10 and secure the trophy with a game to spare.
Perfect 10 for champions
New Zealand have now won 10 matches in a row for the first time since an 18-game winning streak back in October 2016.
While this was far from a vintage display, they have dominated this year's competition from the off to regain the title they won in last year's Tri-Nations format.
South Africa have now lost their past three Test matches and will be desperate to avoid a fourth next weekend against the same opponents.
Barrett holds his nerve
New Zealand's attack was riddle with mistakes – their turnovers conceded count (23) was the same as the number of defenders they beat – but Jordie Barrett stayed accurate with the boot when the pressure was on.
His decisive attempt had looked to be drifting too far left but the relief was palpable when the flags were raised.
France captain Antoine Dupont given go-ahead to return following surgery
France captain Antoine Dupont has been cleared to return to action following surgery on his facial fracture.
Scrum-half Dupont became a doubt for the remainder of his country’s home Rugby World Cup after suffering the injury during a 96-0 win over Namibia on September 21.
The French Rugby Federation announced the 26-year-old was back with Fabien Galthie’s squad at their base in Aix-en-Provence.
Les Bleus play Italy in their final Pool A match on Friday, with a likely quarter-final to come on the weekend of October 14-15.
“Antoine has been given the go-ahead to resume physical activity taking it step by step,” read a statement from the French federation.
“This activity will take place under the supervision of the French national team’s medical staff.”
Dupont was taken off in the 46th minute against Namibia after opposition captain Johan Deysel made a head-on-head tackle and was sent off.
Deysel was subsequently banned for five matches.
France’s health manager Bruno Boussagol said on Thursday he was “convinced” Toulouse player Dupont would not be available for Les Bleus’ upcoming match with Italy.
Bordeaux’s Maxime Lucu is expected to deputise in Lyon.
France assistant coach William Servat told a press conference on Tuesday he had “no doubts” Dupont would be available for the quarter-finals.
Galthie’s side, who have already beaten New Zealand, Uruguay and Namibia, are likely to face South Africa, Ireland or Scotland in the last eight of the tournament.
Dave Kilcoyne: Ireland are frothing at the mouth to tackle Scotland at World Cup
Prop Dave Kilcoyne believes Ireland’s players are “frothing at the mouth” to face Scotland and insists there is no sense of self-satisfaction following a euphoric win over South Africa.
Andy Farrell’s men underlined their status as Test rugby’s top-ranked nation by defeating the reigning champions 13-8 last weekend in Paris.
But progression to the Rugby World Cup quarter-finals is not yet assured moving towards next Saturday’s return to Stade de France for a pivotal showdown with the Scots.
Munster loosehead Kilcoyne believes a memorable evening against the Springboks was “parked” during some well-earned time off as attention quickly shifted to the team’s final Pool B fixture.
“Lads went away and spent a bit of downtime and were itching to get back in, bouncing, and it’s all eyes on Scotland now,” he said.
“That game is parked, we’ve a couple of massive learnings from it and we definitely won’t be falling in love with ourselves.
“Paulie (forwards coach Paul O’Connell) had a few tips for us in areas we were deficient in and we were out there (in training) making sure we had them right for Scotland.
View this post on Instagram“In a competition like this you’ve got to keep learning with every game and you’ve got to keep getting better.
“Next week poses a massive challenge to us again so we’ve got to prepare as best we can for that.
“Everyone’s frothing at the mouth to be involved.”
Kilcoyne is enjoying his second World Cup, having overcome the scare of suffering a hamstring tear during last month’s training camp in Portugal.
The 34-year-old remained in the French capital with other members of the squad to enjoy a couple of days off after the South Africa match before travelling back to camp in Tours ahead of schedule.
Kilcoyne feels the current Ireland setup is the best he has been involved in and praised the impact of head coach Andy Farrell.
“I’m loving it over here, you read people writing about the incredible environment Faz (Farrell) has created for the players,” said Kilcoyne.
“And I don’t say it for the sake of saying it, but I think his emotional intelligence is through the roof.
View this post on Instagram“You look at that South Africa game, such a big occasion physically and mentally fatiguing and to have the foresight to give the lads two days’ break, he probably knew how mentally and physically fatiguing that game was going to be for the whole country.
“I’m not going to be saying about other coaching environments but this is definitely the best Ireland environment I’ve ever been involved in since I’ve been playing, 100 per cent.
“When there’s great camaraderie in the squad, you love being around it.”
Captain Ardie Savea proud of New Zealand’s 14-try drubbing of Italy
New Zealand captain Ardie Savea expressed his pride after the All Blacks demolished Italy at the Rugby World Cup.
An opening defeat by France that put their quarter-final hopes in jeopardy was forgotten as they ran in 14 tries in Lyon, eventually winning 96-17.
Savea told ITV1: “Not just myself but all the boys that played tonight, to put that effort in, I’m very proud.
“We’ve got talent across the board. We hadn’t really clicked but tonight we played some free rugby and that’s how I want my boys to play. We put a lot into this week and we got the rewards tonight.”
Centre Jordie Barrett added: “It’s massively satisfying. We didn’t start the tournament the way we wanted to but we put a few things in place and a step in the right direction tonight.”
He is not getting carried away about the All Blacks’ chances in the tournament as a whole, though, saying: “We’re one day at a time. I know it sounds cliche but we nailed our preparation for this game.
“We’ve got Uruguay in front of us in six days’ time so we’re not going to treat our preparation any differently and anything further than that is a bonus.”
Italy now face the prospect of having to beat France to have any chance of reaching the last eight, and fly-half Tommaso Allan felt his side contributed heavily to their downfall.
“When you give so many penalties away against New Zealand and they keep playing in your half, they’re going to keep scoring,” he said. “We lost all our scrums, lost all our line-outs really, so it’s just tough to start from that.
“We talked at half-time about trying to get some confidence for next week. We know it’s going to be as tough as this if not tougher. We’ve just got to stick together now. Start from scratch, don’t even think about this game, throw it in the bin.”
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