Late All Blacks surge sets up Australian finale

New Zealand 33 South Africa 6:New Zealand scored 21 points in the final 11 minutes to beat a dogged South Africa side 33-6 in the Tri-Nations on Saturday.

The world's top-ranked team were held to a six-point lead until the 69th minute by the Springboks, who were labelled the "B Boks" after 20 of their leading players were left at home to prepare for the World Cup.

The All Blacks finally got their game together to score three late tries, outhalf Dan Carter claiming the third after the siren had sounded for a personal tally of 23 points.

The win moved the All Blacks to the top of the standings on points difference ahead of Australia.

The All Blacks led 6-3 at the end of an error-strewn first half in which the home team looked the more threatening but were denied a score by scrambling Springbok defence and poor handling.

Carter kicked two penalties to one from his opposite number, Derick Hougaard, who levelled the scores five minutes after the restart.

The turning point for the hosts came in the 52nd minute when South African flanker Pedrie Wannenburg was yellow-carded for killing the ball at a ruck.

Carter kicked two penalties in Wannenburg's absence before gaps began to appear in the tiring Springbok defence.

The visitors turned over the ball on halfway to allow wings Doug Howlett and Joe Rokocoko to put in replacement scrumhalf Brendon Leonard for the first try.

Replacement back Nick Evans ran to the left-hand corner from the 22-metre line for the second with four minutes remaining.

Carter, who kicked seven out of eight attempts at goal, claimed the final try after the siren sounded when he jogged through a fragmented Springbok defence after each team had turned over the ball at least once.

Springbok captain Johann Muller said referees were afraid of sinbinning the All Blacks skipper and number seven Richie McCaw.

Muller said the Australian referee Stuart Dickinson should have yellow-carded McCaw for an offence identical to the one that later led to the sin-binning of Wannenburg when the sides were level at 6-6.

"If Richie McCaw had blond hair and wore a green jersey or had dreadlocks and wore a yellow jersey he would never finish a test," said Muller, a reference to the blond Springbok flanker Schalk Burger and the Wallabies' openside George Smith, noted at times for his flying dreadlocks.

"You want to play a fair game and you want to have a fair go at the breakdown and he (McCaw) is really making it difficult for us.

"The first infringement was down in their 22 and the words were 'playing the ball on the ground' and that was exactly the same words at the other end. The only extra word was 'cynical' - and I'm not exactly sure what that means.

The South Africa head coach, Jake White, agreed that the sinbinning was decisive.

"You can't play a team like the All Blacks with 14 men with their athletic ability," he said.

"If they had played with 14 men who knows what might have happened - you could tell that the crowd sensed they weren't on their game."

All Blacks coach Graham Henry said his team had taken a step forward, despite taking 69 minutes to score their first try against a weakened opposition.

"We played most of the rugby and looked like scoring most of the tries and probably got a bit frustrated that we didn't score early," Henry said.

"That led to a lack of patience and discipline but I think it was a good step forward."

The Tri-Nations and Bledisloe Cup will be decided in Auckland on Saturday when the All Blacks host the Wallabies. Both teams have nine points in the Tri-Nations standings.

"There's a huge test match next week," Henry said. "I think it's great for the game of rugby."

NEW ZEALAND: Muliaina; Howlett (Evans, 73), Toeava (Smith, 77), McAlister, Rokocoko; Carter, Weepu (Leonard, 53); So'oialo (Masoe, 73), McCaw (capt), Thorne (Collins, 64); Jack, Robinson; Hayman (Tialata, 77), Mealamu (Hore, 77), Woodcock.

SOUTH AFRICA: Pietersen; Paulse (Claassens, 77), Murray, Olivier, Pretorius (Chavhanga, 77); Hougaard (Grant, 56), Pienaar; Cronje, Wannenburg (Britz, 65), van Heerden (Lobberts, 76); Muller (capt), van den Berg; J du Plessis, B du Plessis (G Botha, 70), van der Linde (Andrews, 77).