New Zealand overhaul Springboks to scrape into record fourth World Cup final

New Zealand surged into the Rugby World Cup final for a record fourth time when they proved too strong, too dangerous and ultimately too streetwise for South Africa in a ppredictably tense 20-18 victory on Saturday.

Tries by Jerome Kaino and Beauden Barrett in each half were a fair representation of the All Blacks’ superior commitment to attack and they deservedly advanced to face Argentina or Australia in the final back at Twickenham.

We did it the hard way today. It was always going to be that way but we’ve got a crack at it next week,” New Zealand captain Richie and McCaw said.

“Our discipline was keeping them in the game, we had to find that bit extra. We’ve been saying they would bring everything. There were no surprises and we had to dig deep to get the result.”

South Africa led 12-7 at halftime through the goal-kicking of Handre Pollard but spent most of the half defending.

Though they offered precious little in attack all match and kicked badly out of hand, the Springboks somehow clawed their way back to within two points with more penalties to set up a nail-biting last 10 minutes.