BRISBANE, Australia — New Zealand placed one
hand on the Rugby Championship title with a bonus point thrashing of Argentina
Saturday while Australia stunned world champions South Africa for a second
time.
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All Blacks coach Ian
Foster chose to rest as many of his frontline players as possible, conscious
that they have tough games over successive weekends coming up against the
Springboks.
But even with an
under-strength team, they proved in a different league to Los Pumas, battling
to a 36-13 win in the second game of a double header in front of 38,000 fans at
Brisbane's Suncorp Stadium.
In the early match,
an electric Australia upset South Africa 30-17, a week after bettering
them 28-26.
Backs Len Ikitau and
Marika Koroibete scored two tries each, securing the Wallabies a bonus point in
the frenetic round-four clash.
New Zealand's win
solidified their position at the top of the tournament ladder, with 20 points
from four games, 10 clear of the Springboks.
It gave them a
virtually unassailable lead in the southern hemisphere tournament with two
games to play. Australia has nine points with Mario Ledesma's Argentina yet to
get off the mark.
"I'm delighted
with the win. We had a number of new combinations but the way the guys have
been preparing over the past 10 days I was really confident with the group that
we went in with," said Foster.
"So delighted
with some of the execution, particularly in the first half. In the second half
we probably paid the price for missing a few opportunities and Argentina grew
through that.
"But overall,
pleased with the performance over what was probably an improved Argentinian
team."
The All Blacks face
the Springboks in Townsville next week before a return leg on the Gold Coast,
with South Africa needing bonus point wins in both games to keep their slim
hopes alive.
Fielding just three
of the starting side that thrashed Los Pumas 39-0 last weekend, New Zealand had
a new-look team.
But the All Blacks
quickly gelled and bagged their first try after just four minutes and there was
no looking back, despite a spirited second-half effort from Argentina, who had
crashed in their previous two Tests against New Zealand without scoring.
Tupou Vaa'i dotted
down twice with Patrick Tuipulotu, TJ Perenara, and Samisoni Taukei'aho also
crossing in a game in which the All Blacks had three tries disallowed.
After a thrilling win
last week, Dave Rennie's Wallabies again delivered the goods, ensuring Michael
Hooper enjoyed victory on his record 60th Test as captain, overtaking George
Gregan.
It was the first
back-to-back wins during Rennie's 14 Tests in charge, propelling Australia to
number three in the world.
"We talked a lot
about going back-to-back here. One performance was good but we wanted to go
again on these guys," said Hooper after they scored the win despite a 17-9
penalty count in South Africa's favour.
"We absolutely
love playing here in front of the crowd and just so pleased these games could
go ahead. Absolutely rapt."
Australia made most
of scrum-half Faf de Klerk being sin binned in the 12th minute, with Ikitau
splitting the defence for two tries while he was off the field.
The Wallabies took a
15-12 lead into the break and kept their foot to the floor in the second
stanza.
A rampaging Koroibete
crossed twice with last week's hero Quade Cooper slotting two conversions and
two penalties.
Like last week, the
Springboks created chances but again failed to finish them off, leaving captain
Siya Kolisi despondent.
"We just didn't
take our opportunities at the end, but they were really good today," he
said.
"We had a lot of
ball and played mostly in their 22, but they shut us down."
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