New Zealand have made a winning start to their World Cup defence, defeating South Africa 23-13 at the International Stadium Yokohama.
Tries from George Bridge and Scott Barrett helped the champions to overcome their Southern Hemisphere rivals in the game of the tournament so far.
The All Blacks rarely ventured further than their own half in the opening 20 minutes with the Springboks dominating the possession. And it was South Africa who opened the scoring on two minutes through a Handre Pollard penalty.
However, despite South Africa's better start it took just one mistake to give away a penalty and allow New Zealand back into the game. Richie Mo'unga stepped up for the resulting kick and levelled the score on 21 minutes.
After Mo'unga's kick, two tries in a storming six minutes had the All Blacks leading by 14 points. New Zealand's first try came when Scott Barrett clinically offloaded to George Bridge inside the '22 who found himself through in space and over the try line.
Three minutes later Barrett was the scorer, and after dominating the first 20 minutes South Africa were staring at a near-definite defeat. Anton Lienert-Brown found space near halfway, skirted a couple of tackles and offloaded to Barrett on his right who had a clear path to the line.
Mo’unga added another simple conversion.
Though, eight minutes after the break it looked to be game on again. Cheslin Kolbe made a run setting up a ruck within ten metres of the All Black's try-line. New Zealand were covering space across the line failing to notice, as Pieter-Steph du Toit did, the gap right through the middle.
Du Toit's try and the following conversion brought South Africa back within seven points. The Springboks needed the next score and they got it 10 minutes later through a glorious drop goal from Handre Pollard.
A four-point gap with 20 minutes remaining looked to set up a potential come back for Rassie Erasmus' side, but it was New Zealand who dominated the rest of the game's possession, scoring two penalties in the process through Mo'unga and Barrett.
The 23-13 results means that New Zealand look destined to win their group and face the runner-up of Ireland's group, Pool A.
Earlier in the day, France defeated Argentina 23-21 and Australia overcame Fiji 39-21.
Download the brand new OffTheBall App in the Play Store & App Store right now! We've got you covered!
Subscribe to OffTheBall's YouTube channel for more videos, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for the latest sporting news and content.
