With their backline in tatters and trailing 10-0 after an early try to debutant Leroy Carter, the Springboks scored 36 unanswered points in an extraordinary onslaught a week after falling 24-17 to the hosts at Eden Park.<\/p>\n
Cheslin Kolbe lit the spark with a try in each half, while Damian Willemse, Kwagga Smith, RG Snyman and Andre Esterhuizen also crossed for the Springboks after the break.<\/p>\n
South Africa are making a habit of humbling the New Zealanders, having inflicted their previous worst defeat \u2013 a 35-7 thrashing at Twickenham in the lead-up to the 2023 Rugby World Cup.<\/p>\n
It was a win made all the sweeter by the challenges thrown at the visitors, who lost lock Lood de Jager, outhalf Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and fullback Aphelele Fassi in the first half to injuries.<\/p>\n
Scrumhalf Cobus Reinach also spent time off the ground from a head-knock but returned after passing a head-injury assessment.<\/p>\n
![\"South](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/D7WMAK6OF7GTFNBG5QT6ILF7UE.jpg\")
South Africa’s Cheslin Kolbe dives in to score a try. Photograph: Grant Down\/AFP via Getty <\/p>\n
South Africa captain Siya Kolisi, a colossal presence throughout the night, said the performance had been brewing after a week of introspection following Eden Park.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe played fearless, we said we\u2019re not going to hold back. We know what we need to do and we believe in ourselves. That\u2019s the most important thing out there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll we wanted was just a win. And we\u2019re just happy that we got there and … are able to fight for the Rugby Championship. So it\u2019s open now and that\u2019s all that matters to us.\u201d<\/p>\n
South Africa\u2019s bonus-point win lifted them to second on the table, one point behind Australia, who fell 28-26 to Argentina in Sydney earlier in the day.<\/p>\n
The third-placed All Blacks are level with defending champions South Africa on 10 points, one ahead of the Pumas after four rounds of the tightest Rugby Championship.<\/p>\n
All four nations have two wins and two defeats, and all to play for.<\/p>\n
South Africa next face Argentina in back-to-back tests while Australia take on New Zealand in two tests doubling as their annual Bledisloe Cup series.<\/p>\n
Shell-shocked All Blacks coach Scott Robertson said there were no excuses for their dramatic fade-out.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey just got momentum, won the air, won a lot of set piece … They were just good tonight,\u201d he said of South Africa.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe thought we had a really good week but obviously it wasn\u2019t deep enough preparation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Early on at Wellington Regional Stadium, there was little sign of the rout in store as the Springboks reeled from injuries and trailed by 10 points following winger Carter\u2019s try and an early penalty.<\/p>\n
It took Kolbe to keep them in the hunt as he intercepted centre Billy Proctor\u2019s pass and bolted 70 metres to the line.<\/p>\n
The All Blacks led 10-7 at the break but the Springboks\u2019 forwards ramped up the set-piece pressure, winning a decisive scrum penalty three minutes from the restart.<\/p>\n
Kolisi made a midfield break and replacement centre Esterhuizen flung the ball wide to Kolbe who danced over at the right corner.<\/p>\n
Three minutes later, the livewire winger was wincing in the hands of trainers after a no-arms tackle by lock Tupou Vaa\u2019i.<\/p>\n
Manie Libbok knocked over the resulting penalty to stretch the Springboks\u2019 lead to 17-10.<\/p>\n
From there, the All Blacks struggled to maintain possession or withstand the waves of Springboks attackers.<\/p>\n
Willemse dotted down near the hour-mark, beating three defenders, before Smith crossed in the 69th minute.<\/p>\n
Snyman, earlier denied a try due to a knock-on, then barged over in the 73rd minute, with Esterhuizen completing the demolition with his team\u2019s sixth try six minutes later to leave the crowd\u2019s black-clad fans stunned.<\/p>\n
With New Zealand losing their first-ever match in Argentina against the Pumas last month, Robertson and his staff face a fortnight of queries before meeting the Wallabies at Eden Park.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got to be really, extremely honest with each other,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rugby Championship: New Zealand 10 South Africa 43 South Africa shrugged off a litany of injuries to humiliate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61685,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[34133,9,10,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,4390,4389,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-61684","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-all-blacks","9":"tag-breaking-news","10":"tag-breakingnews","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-featured-news","13":"tag-featurednews","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-ie","16":"tag-ireland","17":"tag-latest-news","18":"tag-latestnews","19":"tag-main-news","20":"tag-mainnews","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-rugby-championship","23":"tag-springboks","24":"tag-top-stories","25":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61684\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}