100 years of epic clashes: The day the All Blacks broke a Bok legend’s heart

The 2010 Tri-Nations clash between the Springboks and All Blacks at FNB Stadium was a microcosm of what has been the hallmark of the battles between the two traditional foe over the 100 years and 99 matches since the first game between them in 1921.

There was drama, plenty of it, there was bruising physicality, there were periods where the game was played at high tempo. There were some spectacular tries. There was also controversy, as there has been so often when these two titans of the international game have played each other.

It was also a milestone game for a Springbok legend. And coupled with that, making it a day that was worthy of the status of having absolutely everything, was the heartache that followed a spell-binding finish which saw the team that had been trailing for most of the game clinch the win with the last move of the game.

FIRST MAJOR RUGBY GAME AT SOCCER CITY

The milestone was Bok World Cup winning captain John Smit’s 100th test. Although the hosts weren’t in the race for the Tri-Nations title they had won so comfortably the year before, the occasion was made even bigger by the fact it was the first major rugby international to be played at the venue of the Fifa World Cup final that was played earlier in the year.

There were nearly 95 000 people in attendance for a game that would clinch the Tri-Nations title for New Zealand for the 10th time if the All Blacks won, but the Boks, motivated by their desire to give Smit a fitting way to celebrate his landmark achievement, were determined for that not to happen.

And for most of the way it looked like it wouldn’t. It was a day where the Boks, as they so often do on the highveld and in front of a massive home crowd against those particular opponents, raised their game following the wake-up calls of earlier in the competition, which had included heavy defeats in both New Zealand and Australia.

They had been sapped of their strength by an injury that kept Fourie du Preez, their playmaker and general who directed operations when they beat the British and Irish Lions and won the Tri-Nations the year before, out for most of the international season. By the time they got to the FNB clash they had also lost the services of the second choice scrumhalf Ruan Pienaar, while Bakkies Botha, their enforcer, was serving a nine week suspension following his head-butting of All Black scrumhalf Jimmy Cowan in the first game of the competition in Auckland.

BOKS ON TOP FOR MOST OF FIRST HOUR

Francois Hougaard was brought in to make his debut at scrumhalf in the absence of Du Preez and Pienaar and he produced a solid performance. So did most of the other Boks for the opening hour. A fifth minute Dan Carter penalty was cancelled out by two Morne Steyn efforts in the 10th and 12th minutes and the Boks weren’t to be headed again right until the end.

A Schalk Burger try in the 23rd minute gave the Boks a seven point lead and the two flyhalves traded penalties once more. The All Blacks dotted down through prop Tony Woodcock four minutes before the break but Carter’s failure to convert meant the Boks held a slender two point lead (16-14) at halftime.

That became a five point lead when Steyn kicked a penalty three minutes into the second half and with the Boks appearing to gain in control and composure in the third quarter, once Steyn kicked his next penalty to make it 22-14 in the 62nd minute the eight point lead was well merited and deserved.

With 18 minutes to go, and the Boks ahead by 13, it looked like Smit, who was on the field for the entire match, would celebrate his 100th game in fitting style. In those days it was assumed altitude would favour the Boks late in a game on the highveld. That perception has changed since then as the Kiwis have fought back to win a couple of times in subsequent games in Gauteng, but back then we weren’t to know. On the press benches most of us South African rugby writers were already writing about a Bok victory and a happy day for the national captain.

UNCHARACTERISTIC ERRORS FROM CARTER

When Carter pulled three points back with 14 minutes to go it did introduce some nerves, and the longer the game endured the more obvious it was that the All Blacks were getting stronger. And the Boks, with several players having their hands on hips at every break in play, were running out of puff.

Still, with Smit as their captain and everyone playing for him, they dug deep. With 10 minutes to go, the All Blacks threatened down the right flank and kicked ahead. Cory Jane looked like he was going to win the race to dot the ball down only for Bok wing JP Pietersen to get a despairing hand on it in the ingoal area mili-seconds before the All Black wing could do the same.

Then came two uncharacteristic errors from the world’s finest flyhalf of that era, Carter. First he dropped the ball just outside the 22, and then he missed one of the easiest penalty kicks imaginable. That was with seven minutes to go, and it would have brought the All Blacks to within two points of the Boks, meaning a penalty could win it.

But the miss, Carter’s second penalty miss on a day where he missed four kicks in total, meant the All Blacks still had to score a try. They threw everything into their final, desperate attempt to win the game, and for several minutes the Bok defence held firm before finally the All Black captain Richie McCaw was set free down the right flank and Jean de Villiers was just too late to stop him going over on the corner flag.

SOME REFEREEING CONTROVERSY

It was a close call, with McCaw’s foot appearing to strike touch in goal simultaneously with his touch down. South African TMO Shaun Veldsman deliberated for several minutes, and watched several replays, before telling Welsh referee Nigel Owens that he could see no evidence not to award the try. It could have gone the other way.

And then when a longer replay was shown as Carter was lining up the conversion to attempt to win the game for the All Blacks, with the scores locked at 22-all and two minutes to play, came the controversy. The replay clearly showed a forward pass in the build-up, and the Bok coaches, which in those days meant Peter de Villiers, Gary Gold and Dick Muir, were shown on TV displaying justifiable indignation.

So it felt like justice was served when Carter missed the kick. With so little time left, it looked like the game would end in a draw, and at least the Boks wouldn’t lose on Smit’s big day. But think again. The Boks looked like they might be able to control it when they played their way into All Black territory and took possession of the ball from the restart.

But the All Blacks weren’t to be denied and they just walked over the Boks at a loose scrum to reclaim the ball. From there it was thrown to bulky centre Ma’a Nonu and, of all people, Smit missed the tackle that the All Black burst through from inside his own half before sending Israel Dagg in for the winning try down the left flank.

LIKE THIEVES IN THE NIGHT

It was the last move of the game and the conversion that Carter slotted to make the final score 29-22 was really irrelevant. The Boks had fallen tantalisingly short and it was hard for a crestfallen Smit to drag himself back to his feet afterwards. His face was a picture of despair, so were those of most of his teammates. The Boks had given everything but, as former All Black Justin Marshall summed it up in the commentary, “the All Blacks have like thieves in the night snatched the game from under the Boks' very noses”.

It wasn’t the first time and it wasn’t to be the last and that finish, and the circumstances around it added to the magnitude of the occasion, contributed to that clash being one of the five most memorable stand-offs between the Boks and the All Blacks of the last 30 years.