Springboks beat All Blacks in Baltimore: Three takeaways

The Springboks enjoyed a strong second half performance to clinch their most emphatic win against the All Blacks in Rugby's Greatest Rivalry in Baltimore, USA. The Springboks produced a stunning performance in the final Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry Test, to clinch an impressive 43-28 win over the All Blacks at the M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore on Saturday to clinch the series 3-1. It was an epic end to the series with the Boks putting in arguably their best performance of the four Tests. Here then are three big takeaways from the finale. Repeat of Ellis Park first half The first half of the match was almost a repeat of the first half of the first Test at Ellis Park last month, with the Boks bossing the game and 22m entries, but only taking a tight lead into halftime. In the opening Test the Boks led 13-7 at halftime, and in the fourth it was even less, with them ahead 17-14 after a try from the prolific Will Jordan for the All Blacks just before the break. But the Boks should have been further ahead, after they opened with a Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu penalty, only for the All Blacks to hit back with a Codie Taylor converted score. Converted tries to Damian de Allende and Morne van den Berg then put them ahead 17-7, which could have been more had Feinberg-Mngomezulu not missed a long range penalty and a drop goal attempt. Important early second half scores After the first half performance there will have been some nervousness from Springbok fans about a repeat of the Ellis Park game, but they importantly scored twice early in the second half. At first it didn’t look good as the Boks’ first two 22m entries of the second half didn’t end with points. But a maul try to Malcolm Marx, and Pieter-Steph du Toit crashing over in the 51st minute, put them 29-14 up. A 63rd minute converted score to Ethan Blackadder brought the All Blacks right back into the game, although still behind by eight points. But a moment of magic from Kurt-Lee Arendse in the 72nd minute, picking up a loose ball in his own half and going on a mazy run to the tryline, put the Boks back into a 15 point lead with time ticking down. A few minutes later Cameron Hanekom crashed over to put the cherry on the cake, while the All Blacks scored a late consolation try. Strong set piece again The Springboks pride themselves on their set piece and as it has been throughout the series, it was in top form again. The scrum was great and won a number of penalties, as they again got good reward from the ref after the second Test debacle in Cape Town. At lineout time the Boks were again on top, winning their own ball at will, while also stealing a number. The Bok maul was also in great working order and earned them two tries, the first being stopped short before scrumhalf Van den Berg pulled the ball out and sniped over, while the second just rumbled over early in the second half. Another good area was the Boks’ breakdown game, with them effecting a number of important steals, while the All Blacks also stole a couple of balls themselves.