South Africa continued their dominance in this year's Rugby Championship as they clinched an 18-12 victory over New Zealand in Cape Town on Saturday.

Having trailed by six points heading into the break, the hosts rallied to record a fourth consecutive win over the All Blacks and lift the Freedom Cup for the first time in 15 years.

New Zealand started brightly, with their dominance rewarded by the boot of Damian McKenzie after Jasper Wiese had been sent to the sin bin.

McKenzie converted his second penalty just before the half-hour mark as the Springboks saw some uncharacteristic errors punished. 

Handre Pollard's penalty failed to change the sway of momentum, with McKenzie's third conversion of the half giving the All Blacks the advantage at the break. 

But an immediate response transpired after the interval as Siya Kolisi burst over the tryline, with Pollard's conversion handing the Springboks the lead for the first time.

Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu extended South Africa's advantage, but McKenzie's fourth and final penalty of the encounter closed the gap once again. 

However, the hosts sealed the win when Malcolm Marx powered over for a try six minutes from time to see the Springboks close in on the title.

Data Debrief: Cape Town comforts

This is the first time since 1949 that South Africa have won four straight Tests against their great rivals New Zealand.

They have also now won four straight Tests in Cape Town, and that is despite trailing at half-time in three of those four matches. 

New Zealand, meanwhile, have lost three of their last four Tests, having only suffered one defeat across their previous nine matches.

South Africa captain Siya Kolisi warned his team the job is far from done despite them rallying for a thrilling victory over New Zealand in the Rugby Championship on Saturday.

The Springboks secured a 31-27 win over the All Blacks at Ellis Park, coming from behind with two late tries from Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and Grant Williams.

The victory hauled South Africa onto 14 points in the Championship standings as they bid to end New Zealand's four-year stranglehold on the title, but Kolisi says there is still work to be done.

Addressing the capacity crowd in his post-match interview, Kolisi said: "We play for a lot but you people are our number one motivation. 

"We appreciate you every single day. Please don't stop. When times are tough, please keep supporting us. We cannot do it without you.

"We respect the All Blacks. No matter what people say about them, when they need to turn up, they turn up. We believed in ourselves, we didn't panic, and we did what we wanted.

"They were catching us on the exit. After the first try in the second half, we picked it up. I'm really proud of the boys but the job is not done."

All Blacks captain Scott Barrett, meanwhile, was proud of his team-mates' efforts but admitted they had just fallen short of putting together a complete performance.

"Well done to the Springboks, it showed the class team they are," he said. "We weren't quite good enough. We were good for 62 minutes and it's an 80-minute game.

"There were two key moments after kick-offs where we couldn't quite get out of our half and they punished us. It was a huge effort, we're certainly proud, but it was just not quite to be.

"We'll regroup pretty quickly. Some guys have played here for the first time. It's intense and we'll have to be better next week."

South Africa host New Zealand again in Cape Town next week, while Australia go to Argentina for their round-three matchup. 

Captain Siya Kolisi says the daily struggles endured by millions of South Africans is fuelling the Springboks’ quest to retain the Rugby World Cup ahead of a semi-final meeting with England.

Jacques Nienaber’s side are red-hot favourites to progress from a rematch of the 2019 final to set up a winner-takes-all showdown with either New Zealand or Argentina.

Flanker Kolisi, his country’s first black captain, overcame childhood poverty to lift the Webb Ellis Cup four years ago in Japan.

The 32-year-old referenced homelessness and unemployment during an impassioned answer to a question about motivation and believes failing to give 100 per cent would be “cheating” his compatriots.

“I don’t think that will ever change, who we play for, who we represent,” he said.

“When you start playing for others and start doing things for other people it’s not easy to give up, it’s much harder.

“When you think of how many people would give anything to be where we are and the majority of the people in our country are unemployed, some don’t have homes.

“For me, giving up and not giving everything would be cheating not just myself and the team but the rest of the people at home.

“The harder we play, the more we do well, the more we are able to open opportunities for others so that also drives us.

“I believe we are a purpose-driven team, we’re not a trophy-driven team; of course the trophies help you to get more people with you.

“Sometimes you can look at the struggles of what you’re going through and feel sorry for yourself. But we use that pain and those struggles and we carry them with us to drive us through the battles. It helps us to keep on going when it’s tough.”

Three-time champions South Africa defeated hosts France 29-28 in a thrilling quarter-final to keep their title defence on track.

Kolisi will lead out an unchanged team for Saturday’s match against Steve Borthwick’s side at Stade de France in Paris.

“I wish you could see all the supporters back at home,” he continued.

“This is all what people talk about, most of the time, with everything else happening.

“Kids at schools are sending clips of them singing because they know some of us like singing.

“People at work on Fridays wear their green jerseys and the beautiful thing to see is the people who can’t afford the jerseys, they wear anything that’s green, anything that represents the Springboks.

“We see that and that will continuously be our motivation and we know what the team has meant in the past – not just in sport, for our country in general.

“It’s more purposeful when you don’t do something for yourself, only when you are aiding other people that you don’t even know or never even met.”

Underdogs England came into the tournament unfancied but are the competition’s only unbeaten team.

Kolisi insists Borthwick’s men will not be underestimated, despite many pundits and rugby fans feeling a final between the Springboks and the All Blacks is a formality.

“Obviously we don’t see it that way because we know how good England is in the seven previous World Cups that they’ve played,” he said.

“It would be silly to be thinking like that and we’ve never been like that.

“We’ve seen in the World Cup, teams not even in the top 10 beating teams in the top 10 so it would be silly to think like that. We’re not in that mind.

“We know exactly what we’re going to bring and the motivation we have.”

South Africa team: D Willemse; K-L Arendse, J Kriel, D De Allende, C Kolbe; M Libbok, C Reinach; S Kitshoff, B Mbonambi, F Malherbe, E Etzebeth, F Mostert, S Kolisi (capt), P-S Du Toit, D Vermeulen.

Replacements: D Fourie, O Nche, V Koch, RG Snyman, K Smith, F De Klerk, H Pollard, W Le Roux.