New Zealand dominated play and slowly chipped away at a resolute but tiring South African defence on Saturday to beat the Springboks 29-9 and advance to the Rugby World Cup semifinals.
Centre Leon MacDonald scored all of New Zealand’s 13 first-half points on a try, conversion and two penalties and had 16 points overall while hooker Keven Mealamu and winger Joe Rokocoko added second-half tries.
Derick Hougaard, South Africa’s 20-year-old flyhalf, scored all of his team’s points on three penalty goals. It was South Africa’s first quarterfinal loss in a World Cup tournament.
New Zealand, the tournament co-favorites along with England, will play the winner of the quarterfinal on Saturday between Australia and Scotland in next week’s semifinal in Sydney.
New Zealand missed early scoring chances, creating large holes and open-field runs but not capitalising despite holding nearly 80% of the possession in the opening 25 minutes.
Scrumhalf Justin Marshall was the biggest early threat for New Zealand, running about 70m in open field but his pass off to Rokocoko with about five meters from the tryline slowed the play down and New Zealand lost what looked like a certain scoring opportunity.
MacDonald, after missing his first penalty attempt from 23m in the opening five minutes, put New Zealand up 3-0 in the 12th minute but Hougaard levelled the score two minutes later with South Africa’s first penalty goal.
MacDonald scored the All Blacks’ first try after a fine individual effort by flyhalf Carlos Spencer in the 16th minute.
Spencer ran more than 50m and through several missed tackles before sending MacDonald into the clear from about 10 meters.
MacDonald converted his own try to put the All Blacks up 10-3.
Hougaard’s attempt at a dropped goal from about 48m was short of the mark about two minutes later.
Spencer tried a dropped goal of his own at the 22-minute mark from about 10 meters, but the ball hit the left upright. Three minutes later, Spencer tried again and missed his second in a row.
MacDonald gave the All Blacks a 13-3 lead in the 34th minute when he kicked a 42-meter penalty.
Juan Smith had South Africa’s best try-scoring chance with two minutes left in the half, but his pass to a teammate was knocked into touch. Hougaard’s penalty from a difficult angle on halftime pulled the difference to a converted try, 13-6.
It was a deficit the Springboks would have been happy with considering they only had 35% of possession in the first half and had few try-scoring chances.
Aaron Mauger’s dropped goal in 45th minute put the All Blacks up 16-6, but Hougaard pulled the margin back to a converted try with a penalty in the 51st minute.
Mealamu’s second try in test rugby put New Zealand up 21-9 in the 58th minute before MacDonald’s third penalty goal and Rokocoko’s try closed the scoring.
The roof at Telstra Dome was closed and conditions ideal before a crowd of 40 734 in the 52 000-seat stadium.
Scores:
New Zealand 29 (Leon MacDonald, Keven Mealamu, Joe Rokocoko tries, MacDonald 3 penalties, conversion, Aaron Mauger dropped goal) def. South Africa 9 (Derick Hougaard 3 penalty goals). – Sapa-AP