Boks pip All Blacks for victory

RUSTENBURG – All Blacks coach Graham Henry said South Africa had shown the greater desire in edging to a 21-20 Tri-nations win on Saturday.

A 76th-minute penalty by flyhalf Andre Pretorius handed the Springboks their first win in this season’s tournament and ended New Zealand’s long-winning run. “We’ve had a great year and we wanted to finish with a clean slate, but the Springboks had greater desire than us,” Henry told reporters.”We’ve won 15 on the trot, so it’s a long time since we lost.Having already won the tournament, the clean sweep maybe wasn’t enough to get us up.We were not at our best, not on the edge of the edge, but they were.”Springbok coach Jake White described the victory as one of the biggest of his tenure in charge.”It probably keeps the wolves from my door for a week.It’s a tough job, but what greater way to turn things around than with a win against the All Blacks.If you consider where we were a couple of weeks ago, then this is one of our biggest wins as a group.”To beat the All Blacks when they’re on a roll is a tremendous achievement.People may say they weren’t hungry, but if you’re not going to be hungry to beat a world record of successive wins that’s just two games away, then you’re never going to be hungry,” White said.South Africa’s third win over New Zealand in the last three years was hailed by White as a “team performance”, but recalled flyhalf Pretorius and new openside flank Pierre Spies both gave inspired performances that fully justified selection changes.”It’s only Andre’s second test back since he injured himself against Argentina late last year and he’s not going to have too many bigger kicks than that.”And how many times is a guy playing just his third test going to be man of the match playing openside flank against the All Blacks? It just proves what a talented player Pierre Spies is and it bodes well for the future,” White said.Nampa-Reuters”We’ve had a great year and we wanted to finish with a clean slate, but the Springboks had greater desire than us,” Henry told reporters.”We’ve won 15 on the trot, so it’s a long time since we lost.Having already won the tournament, the clean sweep maybe wasn’t enough to get us up.We were not at our best, not on the edge of the edge, but they were.”Springbok coach Jake White described the victory as one of the biggest of his tenure in charge.”It probably keeps the wolves from my door for a week.It’s a tough job, but what greater way to turn things around than with a win against the All Blacks.If you consider where we were a couple of weeks ago, then this is one of our biggest wins as a group.”To beat the All Blacks when they’re on a roll is a tremendous achievement.People may say they weren’t hungry, but if you’re not going to be hungry to beat a world record of successive wins that’s just two games away, then you’re never going to be hungry,” White said.South Africa’s third win over New Zealand in the last three years was hailed by White as a “team performance”, but recalled flyhalf Pretorius and new openside flank Pierre Spies both gave inspired performances that fully justified selection changes.”It’s only Andre’s second test back since he injured himself against Argentina late last year and he’s not going to have too many bigger kicks than that.”And how many times is a guy playing just his third test going to be man of the match playing openside flank against the All Blacks? It just proves what a talented player Pierre Spies is and it bodes well for the future,” White said.Nampa-Reuters