Richie McCaw’s late try lifts New Zealand past South Africa

New Zealand’s fly-half Lima Sopoaga, left, had a successful debut with three conversions and two penalty kicks. Gianluigi Guercia / AFP

Johannesburg // All Blacks captain Richie McCaw marked his 140th appearance for New Zealand with a smart try six minutes from time that delivered a 27-20 victory over arch-foes South Africa on Saturday.

The All Blacks flanker won a line-out close to the Springboks’ line in a planned manouevre and brushed off the challenge of scrum-half Ruan Pienaar to score in a Rugby Championship Test at Ellis Park.

Debutant fly-half Lima Sopoaga converted and kicked a last-minute penalty to seal a sixth New Zealand triumph in their past seven clashes with South Africa.

For the Springboks, the game was a carbon copy of the loss last weekend in Australia as they once again led for most of the 80 minutes only to concede a late try.

South Africa were left ruing a 10-minute second-half spell when they had a numerical advantage after replacement lock Sam Whitelock was sin-binned, but failed to score.

An absorbing clash between the world No 1-ranked All Blacks and second-ranked Springboks indicated why they are among the favourites to win the Rugby World Cup in England from mid-September.

“We kept persevering when behind and took our opportunities when they came,” said McCaw, who needs one more cap to equal the world record of retired Ireland centre Brian O’Driscoll.

“Keeping the Springboks scoreless when we were down to 14 men was crucial, and we held our nerve before hitting back.

“Give credit to South Africa, too, as they had us under the pump during the first half.

“It was a satisfying victory, but we can do a lot better.”

Both teams had cause for satisfaction after the first half, with the Springboks solid in the scrums, combative at the breakdowns and strong in defence.

New Zealand took the lone first-half line-out steal and the world champions always threatened with the ball in hand.

South Africa regained the lead seven minutes into the second half as Jesse Kriel burst between centres Ma’a Nonu and Conrad Smith to score a try that Handre Pollard converted. But the lead lasted just three minutes before New Zealand hooker Dane Coles scored a similar try, displaying the power of a forward and pace of a back to go over and Sopoaga converted. Another Pollard penalty restored the lead for South Africa, and they stayed 20-17 ahead until McCaw struck the decisive blow before a sell-out 63,000 crowd. Title-holders New Zealand top the Championship table with nine points, Australia have four, South Africa two and Argentina are pointless.

“This was the second weekend in a row that we did not take all our chances and paid the price,” Springboks captain Schalk Burger said. “We must learn to close out games when ahead.”

Follow us on twitter at @NatSportUAE